Pieces
by silver-footsteps
Summary: A million different fragments of "what ifs" and "what could have beens". An anthology of happy, sad, and weird ways to fall in and out of love told in oneshots. Itasaku.
1. Aloof

Starting up a new collection of oneshots because random ideas come to me quite frequently. I will be continuing the tradition of _Menagerie_ of taking prompts from reviewers so please feel free to leave suggestions in the review.

* * *

1. Aloof

* * *

He came back and she stretched out her hand. Quarters and pennies spilled into her palm along with a dollar bill slightly damp with sweat. Eyes closed, she rattled the coins around in her hand before she dropped them into her pocket. She pulled her hair away from the back of her neck. The warm breeze that brushed across her shoulders and back was a welcome relief. Inside her mouth tasted like a barren desert.

"A large lemonade costs $3.50. That's robbery," he snorted while pushing the cold plastic cup into her other hand. Cracking her eyes open, Sakura gave him a smile. He climbed onto the hood of the car too, pushing bangs out of his face in an irritated gesture. But his hair flopped back into his face as if to mock him. Snickering, Sakura reached over and pulled his bangs back, securing them in place with a bobby pin she pulled from her own hair.

"Very pretty," she declared before putting the straw in her mouth.

She burst out laughing when Itachi shoved her off the hood with his hip.

* * *

They met her freshman year. Her: bright-eyed and straight out of a high school in the suburbs. Him: a sophomore who had just quit smoking over the summer. They lived in the same building and ran into each other enough times during events to know each other's names and to be able to say 'hi' in passing. Her roommate, Ino, became good friends with Itachi's but Sakura always preferred to spend her nights studying or watching TV in a friend's room. Their paths hadn't crossed often and so they were content that way.

It wasn't until her sophomore year that Itachi and company started barging into her and Ino's room to hang out. They were still in the same dorm only they had moved up a floor. All of the guys had moved out to an apartment but that didn't stop them from always dropping by. At first, Sakura made it a point to be out of the room so as not to intrude. But then they persuaded her to stay to play blackjack. Sakura destroyed all of them the first round and that was the beginning of their friendship.

Kisame, the lazy old grandpa of the group, loved that they could swap cooking recipes. Hidan, the sharp-tongued, liked that she never batted an eye at his increasingly creative insults for her. ("Trashdonkey" was her personal favorite.) Nagato, perpetually stuck to the hip with his girlfriend, never really seemed to have an opinion of her but liked that she let him beat the hard bosses for her in video games. Deidara, big-hearted and always smiling, liked wasting time on the internet with her, giggling over stupid memes. And Itachi, well, it seemed like she and Itachi were on the same wavelength all the time.

If everyone wanted Chinese food, they would rebel and go off to get buffalo wings by themselves. On the weekends they didn't quite feel up to drinking with the rest of the guys, they escaped to go cafe-hopping until all the drunkards were safely asleep. He was her go-to bodyguard at parties to deter persistent creeps on the dance floor. And he never minded driving her home when she had had too much to drink to brave the campus bus late at night.

"I kind of wish I had a boyfriend," Sakura sighed one day over a bowl of popcorn. Hidan and Nagato, playing video games on the sofa, didn't respond. But Deidara grinned from his spot next to her. He finished chewing his mouthful of macaroni and cheese before he spoke.

"If that's a cry for help, none of us are offering assistance," he teased. Sakura lowered her foot in an axe kick on his right thigh.

"Be nice, Deidara," Itachi chastised. He sat across from them, seemingly busy on his laptop. But when Sakura looked over at him to thank him, Itachi was smirking too.

"Besides, it's not like anyone would date a potato like Sakura anyway," he added. Sakura grabbed a handful of popcorn to fling at his face.

"Dick," she sneered.

"Jackass," Itachi smoothly answered.

Sakura leaned back in her seat to survey him for a moment. Her eyes narrowed while Itachi went on happily picking up the pieces of popcorn scattered across the table.

"GetitgetitGETIT! SHOOT IT, HIDAN!" Nagato hollered in the background.

"I'M TRYING, YOU GARBAGE CAN!" yelled Hidan as his fingers frantically mashed buttons on the controller.

"We're like best friends... but enemies," Sakura suddenly remarked.

"Best frenemies," Itachi quickly corrected.

"Wait, what about me, yeah?" asked Deidara with the look of a kicked puppy.

"You're our slave," answered Itachi.

Sakura leaned across the table to bump her fist against his while Deidara looked like he was deciding whether to laugh or to punch them both.

By junior year, Sakura was engrossed completely in her studies. She and Ino moved into an apartment with two of their friends. Conveniently located in the same complex as Itachi's place, she found that living literally a minute apart made things a lot more fun. The guys frequently barged in to demand food or to do homework together. And when Ino's boyfriend stayed the weekend or when she fought with him and spent a few days sobbing and being generally bad-tempered, Sakura escaped to the guys' place.

Putting her feet up on the coffee table, Sakura stared down at the slice of steaming pizza in her hands.

"I love pizza," she declared completely seriously.

"Sakura, if you spent as much time thinking about boys as you did about pizza, maybe you'd have a boyfriend by now," Itachi remarked. There was a muffled "DAYUM" from Hidan and Nagato's shared room. Sakura casually slapped her hand against the thin wall behind her and listened to Hidan howl angrily as his house of cards tumbled.

"I swear to God. One day, I'm going to punch you in the face, Uchiha," Sakura answered without looking at him. He grabbed a couple slices of pizza and threw them on a paper plate before he plopped down on the sofa beside her. Pushing her arm out of the way, he put his feet in her lap, which she promptly shoved away with a disgusted look.

"You love me too much," he assured her too smugly. Sakura shoveled more pizza into her mouth to avoid agreeing with him.

Slowly, Sakura began to realize that the time she spent with Itachi was changing. She spent more time alone with him and less with the other guys. Very often, his texts asking her to hang out had an unvoiced _'but don't invite the others'_ to them. She found that she agreed with this idea though.

They went to movies, hung out at diners sipping coffee all night. If she texted him that she was cold in the library, sometimes he showed up with a coffee and a blanket and sat across from her doing work.

He called her.

No one ever called anymore. It was all texting and instant messaging. But even though he lived less than a minute away, sometimes he called her at night. And they fell asleep listening to each other's' slurring laughs and soft sighs.

One day, chilled to the bone from waiting at the bus stop, Sakura rushed into the guys' apartment. Shivering, she dropped her coat onto the back of a chair and then began digging through the cupboards like she lived there.

"Hey, Kisa?" she called, knowing at least Kisame wasn't in class.

"Yeah?" he yelled back from his room.

"You got any hot chocolate mix?" she inquired.

"Nah. Nagato drank the last of it yesterday. We've got coffee though."

It was only then that Sakura turned around and noticed the lump lying on the sofa. She saw the silver hair and arched an eyebrow.

"Hidan? Are you asleep?" she asked.

"No," he replied, face still smashed into the cushions.

Nose scrunching, Sakura walked over to touch his cheek. She saw his body tense from how cold her hands were.

"You sick? You feel kind of warm," she continued on.

"No," he said just as shortly as the last time.

"...Are you crying?" she finally ventured.

"No. I'm not fucking crying. Just shut up, Sakura," Hidan snarled, flinching away from her hand. Unfooled by the act, Sakura yanked his shoulder until he looked at her. His entire face was puffy and red. Wet patches on his cheeks told her everything.

"She told me I wasn't reading her signals. She said I didn't get her," Hidan suddenly admitted. Her face contorted with sympathy.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he added before bursting into hard, ugly tears. Sighing heavily, Sakura sat down on the sofa beside him. He crawled over, depositing his face directly into her lap. And then he wrapped his arms around her as he sobbed and sobbed hard enough to make his whole body shake.

Itachi came home about an hour later. As he pushed the door open, he looked up directly at Sakura. For a moment, his stunned gaze lingered on Hidan. When Itachi was looking at her again, Sakura silently patted her heart to let him know what had happened. Itachi nodded to say that he understood before walking off to his room. Sakura was left wondering how long she could tolerate Hidan's weight splayed out across her thighs before she began to lose circulation. But then Itachi was back a few minutes later with his laptop. Not saying anything, he sat on the floor by her feet and leaned against the sofa. As he pulled up a word document and began working on his essay, Sakura reached out to muss his still-cold hair.

* * *

Just before finals were about to begin, Sakura found herself sitting in the living room peeling clementines. The fragrance of citrus permeated the warm room. On the other end of the sofa sat Itachi playing games on his phone. She could tell that he was winning from the smug look on his face as he swiped his finger.

"The guys say they want to go to Florida over break. What do you think?" she queried.

"I don't know. What happened to us driving to Quebec?" he reminded her. They had made plans months ago, though no concrete date had been set for the trip.

"It would be fun to go with everyone else. I don't know if they'd be okay with Quebec. What would they do? Eat snow?" answered Sakura. None of the others appreciated the snow after two consecutive blizzards. Deidara moaned daily about beaches and Sakura had even caught Kisame browsing through pictures of surfboards on his computer.

"We could go. Just the two of us," Itachi suggested, not looking up from his phone. Sakura stuck a slice of clementine into her mouth and chewed as she thought.

"What? And dump everyone else? That's cold, even for you," she laughed. As she spoke, she crawled over. He glanced up when he felt the sofa cushions shifting. She leaned in to pop a morsel of fruit into his mouth too. His expression grew thoughtful as he ate. Sakura sat back down on her end of the sofa to pull another wedge of clementine free.

"Are we dating?" he abruptly questioned.

"I don't think so," she answered just as calmly.

"Do you wanna?"

Sakura peered up at him. He flinched as looking away cost him his life in the game but then refocused on her.

"What. Date? Like for real?" she probed. He nodded once.

Chewing noisily on her clementine, Sakura considered this for a moment. Or, she pretended to be. She already knew her answer.

"You could have worded that a little more romantically but yeah. Okay," she finally told him after a few minutes.

"Please. You would punch me if I did something sappy like buy you roses," retorted Itachi. There was a pause. Then Sakura flung her clementine peels at him.

"True. I'm allergic anyway," she declared with a grin.


	2. Choice

Here's a special treat for everyone. A new chapter less than a year after the previous one!

This particular one has been sitting gathering dust for about a million years. To be honest, it's a love triangle rather than a pure Itasaku. I highly doubt anyone will be complaining. I'm certainly not.

* * *

2. Choice

* * *

"And so, I will present the lovely Lady Sakura. Be sure to look alluring. You're good at that, right?"

Sakura turned around to shoot a withering stare at her cousin as he spoke. But even her irritation couldn't mask the fear that shook its way down to her knees. Sasori arched his eyebrows at her, urging her to walk forward. Biting her lower lip, she raised her head up high as she stepped out from behind the guards in their shining armor. She stood, trying not to tremble as she stared down the long paved path that led out past the front gates.

At last, Sakura heard the thundering of hooves. The ground shook as three dark smudges appeared over the top of the hill and then raced forward. The beasts snorted and grunted noisily as they barreled through. She began to fear that they would shatter the cobblestone to pieces in their wake. As they neared, she began to discern the features of these fearsome men. The sharp lines of their faces made her shudder. Two of them had hair that was as dark as ink and their expressions even blacker. She had to fight back the urge to take a step back from them as they drew to a sudden halt.

One of the men stared directly at her. Large streaks of bright red and purple were painted across his face, sending waves of terror rippling through her. It almost looked like he was covered in streaks of burning lava. But she refused to look away, keeping her chin high as she stared right back at him. She thought she saw a smirk curl his lips before he turned his attention back to her cousin.

"Honored guests, friends, it's so good to see you've arrived safely," said Sasori in his usual voice dripping with syrup.

"Save your flattery. We come for the bride promised. Speak quickly. We ride back before dusk falls," one of the men snapped. Sasori kept the smile on his face.

"My apologies. And who do I have the pleasure of addressing?" he continued on as if he hadn't been interrupted so rudely. The man who had spoken glowered at him. And then, in a foreign, viscous tongue, addressed the two men on his right. They didn't seem to speak so much except for a few muted words. Rather, it was the quick movements of their eyes that seemed to convey the most meaning. After a few moments, the man on the far right murmured something that made the first man shrug.

"I am Kabuto, interpreter of tongues. And this is The Crow, along with his brother, The Hawk. We have traveled far for our prize," Kabuto finally said. As he spoke, his gaze very deliberately slithered over Sakura. His words were heavily accented and clipped but still understandable.

"It is an honor to be able to meet The Crow and The Hawk in person. I am Lord Sasori of the Red Sand Oasis. And this is my cousin, the lovely Lady Sakura," answered Sasori. At the sound of her name, Saura lowered herself in a curtsey.

"I'm sorry to say that I'm unfamiliar with your marriage practices. But I was hoping that if there's a ceremony that it could be held here-"

"Enough of your words. They waste our time. We take the woman. And you get your access your alliance against the western king," Kabuto interrupted once again. Sasori's lips twitched. His thin veneer of patience was cracking. Seeing this, Sakura lightly put her hand on his arm.

"I thank you for your offers of hospitality, cousin. But I must go. You've given your word," Sakura reminded him in a gentle but firm tone. The pressure of her hand was a reminder of the gravity of the situation. They had both seen the swords that the brothers were carrying. Grim-faced, Sasori nodded with visible reluctance.

"Is there a horse for my cousin or does she walk?" inquired Sasori. This time, his tone was significantly cooler.

"She rides with whom she chooses," replied Kauto in such a vague manner that Sakura had to stop herself from whipping her head around to stare at him. Holding her tongue, she looked up at the three men on their large horses. Kabuto was definitely out of the question. He oozed sliminess and the way he smiled showed off too much tooth to make her comfortable.

The man known as The Hawk, sitting in the middle, was the one who had locked gazes with her. Through the bright war paint on his face, she could see that his eyes were also crimson. It was a color she had never seen in eyes before. As she appraised him, he seemed to take this as an invitation to look her over too. They shared no language, but the look on his face said enough about his interest. She rewarded him with an icy stare. But that only made his lips curl into a challenging smirk.

And then, on the far left, sat The Crow on his snorting stallion. His dark hair was pulled back in a low ponytail but she guessed that it would be almost as long as hers let down. Instead of the abrasive paint his brother wore, he had two scars running down his face, tracing the path that tears would take if he was a man even capable of shedding any. His eyes, too, were the color of blood, and Sakura wondered at the anomaly. The Crow did not stare her over as his brother did. He gazed upon her with an unreadable expression that seemed neither unwelcoming nor inviting.

After some thought, Sakura took a step in the direction of The Crow. Kabuto chuckled.

"An interesting choice. You know how to ride?" the silver-haired man queried. Sakura took a few more steps until she was standing next to the horse. It was somewhat taller than she was used to and she noticed that the riders did not use saddles. Instead, there was a thick sort of cloth draped over the horse's back that was secured with a leather belt. The Crow didn't say anything but offered her his hand. She placed her hand in his gloved one and he immediately pulled her up as if she weighed nothing. He maneuvered her in front of him. When he reached around her to grasp the reins, she found that she was nestled snugly against his chest. She tried her best not to blush at the close contact.

"I've ridden. But my horses seem like cats in comparison," she answered, turning her head to look over at Kabuto. This answer seemed to delight him because he was smiling again.

"Be well, cousin. I wish it hadn't come to this," Sasori said, reclaiming her attention. Her older cousin suddenly seemed so small- so vulnerable. But Sakura struggled to find pity for him in her situation. It was her being sold- not him.

"Go back on your word and I'll have your throat slit, dearest cousin. Be in good health," Sakura told him with a gentle smile. It seemed to take a moment for Sasori to process the threat with her placid expression. Chuckling, he straightened. She could hear Kabuto muttering something in the background and she felt the vibration of The Crow's chuckle against her back. So Kabuto was fluent enough to translate sarcasm. Sakura stored the knowledge away for later.

"A terrible horror as always, cousin. Be in good health as well. I suspect that you'll make yourself some new friends and have your rats crawling all over my castle in a fortnight," responded Sasori.

When Sakura looked up at Kabuto, he signaled the other two riders. Without greeting Sasori, the men took off, horses shivering and whinnying loudly as they turned and galloped off. The rushing of wind in her face pinched her cheeks until they hurt. The jolting of the horse underneath her bordered on painful without a proper saddle. But Sakura could feel her braid whipping along in the air and smell the grass and the dirt. It was a sort of clean smell she hadn't experienced in a long time.

There was no true way to tell time, but Sakura tracked the movement of the sun across the sky. It peaked before slowly arcing downwards. Shadows lengthened. The smell of salt began to reach her as strong winds pulled across from the west.

The hands gripping the reins were so big and she could see the strength in those fingers as he steered the beast. Stealing a quick glance back, she could see that the man's piercing stare wasn't focused on her but on the roads that lay ahead.

Sakura's hands felt awkward clenching into the front of her dress. After one last sneak peek at The Crow's stoic expression, she reached out and tentatively grabbed hold of the horse's mane.

Sakura started when she suddenly felt, rather than heard, The Crow growl something. The horses suddenly slowed and it was then that she noticed that they were passing by a village. There was a pause, and then The Crow said something else that made Kabuto laugh in a harsh, grating sound.

"We stop for a moment to let the horses drink," explained Kabuto as the horses cantered in through the village entrance. There were stares as the villagers paused in their everyday lives to stare at the strange visitors. But then there was a chorus of cheers from children as they spotted bright pink hair.

"It's Lady Flowers!" one of them exclaimed. With a hoot, the little ones swarmed forward, carrying their toys and younger siblings as they went. But then they stopped short at the sight of the three men with fearsome expressions glowering down at them. For some reason, instead of looking at Kabuto, Sakura turned her head to look back at The Crow. He raised his eyebrows, as if surprised that she dared to look him in the face.

"Might I greet the children for a bit?" she requested while looking up at him. Kabuto called out his translation in the background.

The Crow stared hard at her before he turned to his brother. They seemed to communicate silently before The Hawk, sighing, nodded. He turned to say something to Kabuto.

"We will leave in five minutes," Kabuto told her. Sakura looked down at the horse, trying to figure out how to dismount without looking like an idiot. She recognized a few faces in the crowd all gathered to stare at her.

"Would someone mind helping me? This horse is either too tall or I'm too short," she called. There was a scattering of nervous laughter before two men stepped out to aid her. Putting her hands on their shoulders, she let them lift her up before lowering her slowly to the ground until her feet were planted firmly. One of them was the baker's son, she realized. He had often stopped to say hello whenever she rode into the village to buy herbs.

"You're keeping some new company there, My Lady," he greeted her with a little bow.

"Thank you very much for your help. And I'm sorry for the disruption. We'll be leaving shortly," she answered. But before she could say anything else, the children surged forward. Clinging to her legs and reaching up hands to touch her, they pushed the men out of the way.

"Lady Flowers! Lady Flowers! Where are your flowers?" they asked.

Ever since she had been sent to live with her cousin at the southern oasis many years ago, Sakura had taken to visiting nearby villages. Though there wasn't much she could do with the money and power of a minor noble. She couldn't buy them homes or supply jobs. So she cut massive armloads of the brightly colored flowers that grew along the sides of the road and packed as many loaves of bread along with hunks of cheese and dried figs as fit into her baskets. She handed out the flowers and food in little bundles to the orphans and widows of the village.

To the children, she had become "Lady Flowers".

"No flowers, I'm afraid. I'm sorry," she answered with a smile. She patted the dirty heads and touched the grubby little hands. She caught sight of the old woman who ran the orphanage. Waving her over, Sakura spoke to her in low tones.

"I'm going away but I want to make sure that the children are cared for. Take this." As she spoke, Sakura took off the gold bangle hanging from her right wrist. It was a heavy piece of jewelry encrusted with rubies and sapphires. The round gems glittered brightly from the crisscrossed vines across the sides of the bangle. Pressing it into the woman's wrinkled palm, Sakura smiled.

"This is too much, My Lady," the old woman gasped.

"Take it. Feed and clothe the children. Care for yourself. Be well," insisted Sakura. At this, tears glimmered in the old woman's dark eyes. She kissed Sakura's forehead and then kissed the backs of both her hands.

"You will be blessed. You will be blessed in all you do for your kindness," the woman uttered in a shaking voice. She kissed Sakura's knuckles before she slowly backed away. There were more tugs on the bottoms of Sakura's skirts. She knelt down to scoop up one of the smaller children in her arms.

"Lady Flowers, did you say you were going away?" the little girl asked, putting her arms around Sakura's neck.

"Yes, little princess, I'm going away on an adventure so I won't be back for a while," said Sakura, tapping her on the nose. The little girl giggled. When she set the child down, Sakura was met with a barrage of reaching hands and teary eyes. But she didn't have time to spare for every single one. She could feel three sets of stares on her back that served as clear reminders that she was out of time. Blowing kisses to the children, Sakura forced herself to turn her back to them.

She was met with The Crow's appraising look again. With that same, unreadable expression, he offered her his hand and pulled her up onto his horse.

They rode on to the north. The sun plummeted to their left, sinking lower and lower until the sky began to turn loud shades of orange and burning red. The horses were urged on faster and faster. Sakura could feel the nervousness in the air as night fell.

It took Sakura a while to realize that they were not heading for a "where" but rather for a "who". By the time it was dark, Sakura could see the distant glow of open flames dotting the horizon. As they drew near, Sakura saw that it was a large group of people settling in for the night. She didn't know much about the strange warriors from the north, but she recognized a small army when she saw one. When they were close enough, someone abruptly pulled her down from the horse and dropped her onto her feet. Sakura stumbled a little and immediately heard The Hawk growl out something. Sakura couldn't be certain, but it sounded like a rebuke because the soldier who had released her so roughly muttered something and slunk away. She didn't have time to ponder, however, because the men also dismounted and marched on ahead of her. The glance that The Hawk shot her over his shoulder seemed to be an indication to follow.

There were crowded clusters of smaller tents scattered around. Towards the middle of camp were four bigger tents. Sakura admired the quality of the leather and cords before she hurried on. She couldn't imagine being left behind would be pleasant. Men in armor stomped past, always pausing briefly to nod their heads respectfully to the two men stomping ahead of her. Kabuto hung back, his leer unpleasant as he explained things to her.

"This will be your living quarters. The Crow's tent is to your left and The Hawk's is to your right. The other tent across from you is the meeting tent. Do not wander in there. You will be killed," Kabuto quickly told her. Sakura didn't bat an eyelash at the threat of death. They suddenly stopped and Sakura nearly walked into The Hawk's back. He looked at her over his shoulder and she was sure he smirked again.

The Crow rattled out something in his rough, commanding tone. It was the most words she had heard him speak in succession yet.

Sakura didn't even look at him. She turned her inquisitive gaze to Kabuto.

"The reason we're so crowded is that we have peasants. Their village was destroyed in a landslide so we're herding them to the capital. The Crow invites you to take a few slaves for your amusement," Kabuto translated. Sakura's eyes narrowed. She moved past him, past the two brothers, to where there were women huddled around, clutching food and scraps of fabric to their chests. It was evident that they had been plucked in the middle of their nightly chores. Sakura saw some soldiers dragging others along into the circle and shoving them in place.

Sakura looked at their dirty faces and eyes wide with fear.

"Do any of you speak my tongue?" she asked.

She was met with puzzled looks. Some of the women looked at one another and whispered. There was no glimmer of comprehension in their eyes. But there was some jostling until one little girl was pushed forward.

"This one speak," one of the older women declared with a kick at the girl. The child cowered against the blow. Then she stood staring at her feet. Sakura stared in wonder at the mass of red hair bristling around her head. Even covered in dirt, it was a vibrant shade of crimson.

Sakura crouched down in front of the girl.

"Is this true?" she queried in a softer voice. The little girl trembled but didn't speak.

"TALK, GIRL," Kabuto barked from behind them. The girl let out a little jolt of terror before she nodded furiously.

"Y-yes... I speak your language w-well..." she stuttered out with her hands fisted at her sides.

"Then I will take you... as my traveling **companion**," Sakura declared. She could feel the stares drilling into her back but her gaze fixed firmly on the stoic visage of The Crow.

"She will sleep in my quarters. Any food and water she requires will be taken from my portion. She will serve as my translator and she will be kept safe," said Sakura in a steely voice. She met The Hawk's dark eyes as well, barely noticing Kabuto translating beside him. There was a long pause before she thought she saw the corner of his mouth twitch upward. And then The Crow uttered one syllable that she somehow knew meant, "Do as you please". The Hawk also gave a sort of jerk of his head that looked like a nod.

But Kabuto seemed dissatisfied.

"**I** am the translator," Kabuto argued in a pompous voice.

"But **I** don't like you very much. I've known her for 30 seconds and I already like her better," Sakura replied sweetly. She then rose to her full height and offered her hand to the girl.

"Come. Show me around the rest of the camp and then we'll eat," she said. The girl hesitantly curled her fingers around Sakura's and earned a smile. Sakura let herself be pulled away, only hesitating to throw a quick simper at Kabuto as she left. And she was certain that she saw The Crow and The Hawk say something to each other before they both smiled.

"What's your name?" asked Sakura once they were away from the men.

"M-moegi, Your Highness," the girl promptly answered. When Sakura laughed, she looked up at her with wide eyes.

"I'm not a queen, little one. My name is Sakura. And don't listen to those pig-headed men. You're no one's slave," Sakura promptly told her. Moegi's eyes grew even bigger as she stared but she didn't say anything else about the subject. Instead she escorted Sakura around the rest of the area as she explained the usual schedules and rules.

The peasants did not speak to The Crow or The Hawk. The soldiers prepared their own meals so mostly they fed and took care of themselves. Occasionally some of the men would visit them demanding clothes to be fixed or a wound to be bandaged.

"We mostly wake at dawn and we leave soon after. We stop at noon for a meal and keep walking. We set up camp before nightfall. Sometimes we stop for many days at a time. I don't know why," Moegi said. Sakura nodded as she soaked in the information. She noticed that they had circled around, returning to the tent that Kabuto had indicated as hers. After a moment of hesitation, Sakura pushed past the flap and into her quarters. Moegi only followed when she beckoned for her.

The inside was surprisingly well-furnished.

There was a large bed to the left covered in blankets and furs to keep her warm. The floor was covered in an assortment of richly woven rugs in different patterns and colors. There was a vanity in the back, along with a heavy wooden trunk decorated with brass carvings. The metal stove in the middle of the room had a chimney that rose up, poking out through a hole in the roof. There were already red embers glowing inside, warming the place. Sakura appraised everything without comment.

"Um... if you would like... I could go fetch dinner?" Moegi softly asked.

Sakura put her hands on her hips.

"How about, I ask if you would please go get dinner for the both of us?" Sakura corrected her. Moegi thought hard before she nodded eagerly.

"Of course... My Lady?"

"Very good."

Moegi's father had been a merchant. Her mother had died giving birth so the man had raised Moegi. He took her with him everywhere in his travels. In her youth, she soaked up foreign tongues hungrily. She spoke the language of the western tribes as well as the fluid, watery words of the people to the Far East known for their rich textiles.

She was skinny, and perhaps a bit short for her age. Sakura suspected that she wasn't being well cared for among the village women. Though she had a living aunt who had taken her in after her father's death a couple years ago, Moegi's gaze grew shifty whenever the woman was brought up. That, and the healing bruises on her arms and back gave Sakura a good picture of whatever was going on.

"Was I wrong to take you from your village?" inquired Sakura one day as she watched Moegi dig into her dinner with gusto. The girl froze mid-bite, letting her spoon hover in the air as she stared up at Sakura with a look of bewilderment.

"I am much happier with you, My Lady," Moegi admitted with a shy smile, "You don't yell at me and I'm never hungry."

"Is that so?" answered Sakura. She looked down at her half-eaten dinner for a moment. And then she tilted her plate to scrape the rest of her meat and vegetables on Moegi's dish.

"Eat up. A girl needs many things to become a fine woman. Food is only one of those things."

Though Moegi looked puzzled, she nodded and returned to enthusiastically devouring her supper.

* * *

It was difficult to glean information from her situation. Sakura understood this well and fought to suppress her frustration. She wasn't used to being kept in the dark.

She was free to move about the camp and when they moved, she was given what was apparently a place of honor on one of the leader's horses. After the first day, Sakura naturally chose to ride with The Crow. Though he had an equally terrifying aura, he didn't stare at her body whenever he thought she wasn't looking so she preferred him. Sakura sometimes tried to use Kabuto to get clues as to what was happening but he remained cryptic and unhelpful for the most part. Moegi was always too frightened to offer much help. Her tongue seemed to lock up in the presence of such men. Sakura didn't blame her.

They journeyed for several days without any hints of marriage or of even who her betrothed actually was. Sakura was positive that Kabuto had called her a bride but what bride was hauled across the plains without a groom? Moegi seemed equally perplexed about the situation so Sakura didn't press it. But the irritation still boiled and built under the surface until the sheer boredom of waiting around grew too strong to ignore.

One day, as they settled camp for the night, Sakura exited her tent with Moegi on her heels. It didn't take long to find Kabuto skulking around with the same sneer on his face.

"I need to talk to them," she said in as polite yet firm of a tone as she could muster. Kabuto looked vaguely amused but he was surprisingly cordial. He nodded and motioned for her to follow him. Sakura felt Moegi's hand close around the side of her skirt, clutching it frantically as she scurried along.

They were led through crowded clusters of people. A train of women passed through, returning from the nearby river. When a woman carrying a basket of fresh laundry on her head turned around to say something to her friend, she didn't notice the people she was walking backward toward. Clicking his tongue, Kabuto smacked her aside with the back of his hand. The ring of the slap made Sakura flinch. The woman toppled, sending her clean clothes flopping to the muddy ground. While Kabuto laughed to himself, Sakura whirled on him with fury. Moegi squeaked and hurried to move to behind Sakura again. She still didn't seem comfortable walking out in the open around the silver-haired man.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded. Kabuto stopped mid-laugh. He seemed surprised to see her so infuriated.

"She was in our way. A wench should learn her place," he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Incredulous, she gaped at him.

"How dare you? Now she has to wash those all over again," Sakura pointed out. Kabuto was puzzled. He glanced at the woman.

"It's not like she has anything better to do. She'll wash them again. And again, if she has to," he answered with a shrug.

"It's freezing cold in the river. I've watched these women wash their clothes until their hands crack and bleed," protested Sakura.

"There's no need to be upset over a few pieces of trash. She'll be fine," he scoffed in response. Lip curling, she raised an eyebrow at him. She felt Moegi tap her elbow and she glanced over her shoulder once. Through the crowd came The Hawk, closely followed by The Crow. The Hawk said something with a frown, clearly intending to step in. But The Crow murmured something back and the younger brother seemed to calm down a little. They seemed prepared to watch but not to step in. Well aware of the eyes on her, Sakura looked back to Kabuto with a decidedly neutral expression.

"The only trash here is your attitude. I was born into nobility and I have never once been taught to treat people this way. Of all the men I've known, only the lowest scum act like you," she stated in a flat voice. Kabuto's smile immediately dropped. Taking a step towards her, he leered in an unpleasant way.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"You heard me, _Translator_," she answered with the same cool expression. Kabuto grit his teeth.

"No matter what rank your ancestors held, those titles have no meaning here. Speak to me that way again and I won't be so kind," hissed Kabuto. Without flinching from the spit flying from his mouth, Sakura raised her eyebrows. She looked down at the young woman cowering on the ground between them. The angry welt on her cheek made Sakura's eyes narrow.

"It would be wise to consider your surroundings when speaking. Come to my tent later and I can treat your wound," Sakura told her while Moegi translated. When Sakura offered her hand, the woman swatted it away and instead stood on her own. Amused, Sakura shushed Moegi when the girl began to complain about the disrespect. They waited for the woman to gather her fallen things before she ran off, leaving Kabuto and Sakura staring at one another.

"And you might want to hold your tongue as well. I may be a woman but I'm quite certain that if I begged and sobbed and wept about how you threatened me, that things would not end well for you," said Sakura with a placid smile on her face. But for some reason, The Hawk nudged his brother with his elbow and the both of them chuckled quietly together. Their smiles froze when Sakura turned her head to look at them. And then Sakura looked down at Moegi still hiding behind her elbow. The bewildered black eyes that peered up at her betrayed nothing.

"I will be retiring for the night. Come, Moegi," Sakura announced. The girl paused to translate the words to The Hawk and The Crow before she scuttled after Sakura. She kept her head bowed and her hands folded meekly in front of her.

"The Hawk and The Crow," began Sakura as they reached the tent. She pushed the flap aside and let Moegi follow her in before letting the heavy cloth fall back into place.

"Yes, My Lady?" said Moegi in return.

Sakura stood with her hand on her hip. After some thinking, she decided against speaking. Shaking her head, she pulled her fingers through her hair to pull out the ties and pins holding it in place. Her curls spilled down her shoulders, releasing the aroma of the oils rubbed into them in the morning. She began unclasping her jewelry and when Moegi moved to assist her, Sakura wagged a finger at her. The accessories clattered loudly as they fell onto the metal tray on top of the vanity.

"You're not a servant girl. You're my translator. This is a job for a servant," Sakura reminded her. Nodding, Moegi took a step back. She stood awkwardly, hands clasped, until she looked at the stove in the middle of the tent. Sakura unfastened her cloak. Underneath was a long-sleeved blue dress that fell to her calves. She shed that too, breathing a sigh of relief as she stood in just a slip.

"Should I rebuild the fire, My Lady? I mean… as a favor to the both of us. It's a little chilly," ventured Moegi. Sakura sat in front of her vanity to take off her boots. She then nodded. Moegi bolted out to get wood. She was always so eager to help. But too soon as the tent flap fell shut, it opened up again and cool air rushed in.

"Did you forget something? There's no need to rush," laughed Sakura as she looked up. Eyes widening, Sakura quickly stood. The Crow stood in the entrance to her tent, his face as pale and calm as usual. Sighing, Sakura moved to pull on her dressing gown. It was insubstantial and made of silk so it didn't offer much warmth but it did cover up the equally thin slip she was wearing. Plopping down on the edge of her bed, Sakura motioned for her visitor to sit on the area at the foot of her bed covered with rugs and soft pillows. He paused for a moment before he strode over and sank gracefully onto the cushioned area.

"If you're here to chastise me, I'm not interested. I have no patience for men who pick on weaker women. It's disgusting," Sakura began in a brisk voice. She carefully adjusted one of the folds of her robe to settle better over her knee. When she looked into The Crow's face, he simply blinked at her. His acting was very good, she realized. Almost anyone else would have been fooled. But Sakura sighed.

"Don't pretend not to understand me now. There's no point," she added.

And then, very slowly, The Crow folded his arms over his chest.

"You caught that?" he finally replied in a rich and slightly accented voice. It was fascinating how different he sounded without the growls and low tones of his mother tongue.

"It wasn't too subtle tonight. You shouldn't laugh right after I say something. It gives you away. I've had my suspicions for a while, though," she answered.

"You're not angry," he observed with some measure of surprise in his tone. Sakura shrugged.

"I would have done the same. Testing to see if I was trustworthy. Interpreting my character. It's a smart move," she sighed. Sakura gestured with her toe toward the canter of wine sitting on top of her heavy trunk filled with clothing. He seemed to consider and then he nodded. Sakura stood to go pour them drinks.

"At any rate, I'd prefer if we spoke to one another directly from now on. I'll be happier the farther that snake Kabuto is from me... and from Moegi," Sakura continued as she handed him the silver goblet. She took a sip of her own beverage, savoring the rich sweetness on her tongue. When she sat back down on the edge of her bed, she noticed that The Crow did not drink. He sat observing her. He seemed amused by her blatant disdain for the translator.

"Well, Crow, what do you say?" she asked his silence.

"Itachi," he uttered.

Sakura blinked.

"Pardon?"

"My name is Itachi. Remember it well. Not many have the privilege of using it," he told her. He swallowed down all the wine before he set the goblet down on the ground and left the tent.

The next morning, as she sat brushing her hair, the tent flap moved and The Hawk stood there, his eerie red eyes taking in everything at once. Moegi looked ready to bolt upright but Sakura slowly shook her head at her until the girl sat again.

"Good morning. I assume your brother's let you know that your cover's blown," she said as she glanced his way. She watched him bristle.

"You have good eyes," replied The Crow. His voice sounded different too. His accent was slightly thicker but the words of her familiar mother tongue rolled out smoothly. Sakura smiled, already warming up to him.

"I do," she agreed as she turned back to resume brushing her hair. Moegi sat at her feet, watching the process with wonder. With some brushing and oiling of its own, Moegi's hair had been somewhat tamed. It was pulled up in two pigtails tied with thin strips of leather. The look was much cleaner than before and the girl adored it. But she was still fascinated with Sakura's hair- both by the unusual color and the soft, silky texture of it.

"My name is Sasuke," The Hawk finally told her.

"A pleasure," replied Sakura as she tilted her head to meet his gaze.

* * *

As the journey progressed, the weather grew colder and colder and the sky began to lose its color until it was grey at all times. Initially, Sakura shivered in the silk clothes she had worn from home. Luckily, after some careful observation, Sakura decided to give her heavy jewels away to the peasant women of the village. She had always had distaste for the garish rubies and sapphires of her cousin's house. It was her duty to wear her family's colors no matter how cumbersome and ugly they were. But now that they were left behind, she wasted no time in erasing all traces of them.

The village women, of course, remembered this kindness, and were quick to offer her new clothes to better suit the climate. It took some observation to understand which furs and fabrics were suited for which sort of clothes. She spent some nights chatting with these women with Moegi between them to bridge the language gap between them. Sakura knew from one look that appointing Moegi as translator had greatly elevated her status among her people. No one pushed her anymore or shot her dirty looks. Tensions died down and Sakura's collection of functional clothing increased.

So far, she had relied on the warm cloak she had received from Sasuke to keep her alive. The outside was a dark brown, almost chocolate color while the inside was covered entirely in soft, warm fur. It fastened at her throat in a simple silver clasp. He had dropped it on her bed one night after a long day's travel. She stared uncomprehendingly at it.

"Wear it. You'll fall ill," he grunted before leaving just as abruptly.

The village women complimented it without end.

"It looks lovely on you," Moegi translated for them. Sakura, glad for the warmth on her shoulders, smiled in response.

As they travelled, they stopped at markets to buy food and supplies for the trip. During these times, Sakura slipped off to talk to merchants where she stocked up on thicker dresses and sturdy boots that could take the cold. Nearly all of them spoke the language of the South and so transactions were simple. She haggled with them fiercely but this usually earned her more affection than ire. She always returned back from her trips with little trinkets of jewelry or a few extra fruits, which she happily shared with Moegi.

About a month after her arrival, Sakura woke early in the morning to barking just outside her tent. She rose groggily. Moegi was still sleeping, curled up into a little ball at the foot of the bed with furs thrown over her for warmth. Careful not to disturb the girl, Sakura slipped off the mattress to pull on something over her nightgown. She left the tent, surprised at just how cold it was this early in the morning. She quickly forgot this when she saw what had been making all the noise.

"Dogs?" said Sakura.

She strode up directly to Itachi, still in her dressing robe and soft leather slippers. The soldiers quickly parted for her, not even daring to look at her in the presence of one of their leaders. Her arms were crossed over her chest as she looked up at him.

There was a large pack of dogs milling around his feet. When she approached, they gathered around her, snuffling and grumbling. But none of them growled at her. She had always had a way with animals.

"Trackers," Itachi said in a curt grunt.

"Who are they tracking?" she queried.

"No one as of yet. They were a gift to us from our father," answered Itachi. Before she could probe further about his parents, Sakura felt a little tongue swipe at her ankle.

"Hey!" she exclaimed. One of the dogs wagged its tail as it gave an excited yap. Laughing, she lifted it up in her arms. She caught the look that Itachi gave her but didn't understand it fully.

"You enjoy dogs," he noted. Sakura cradled the dog in her arms and it soon settled down, seeming content to be held there.

"I do. We always had cats. I can't stand cats," said Sakura. When she looked at Itachi again, she saw his eyes narrow. His stare moved from the canines to her in a circle before he spoke again.

"Perhaps they can keep you company when I don't require them," he slowly suggested. Sakura gaped at him. She had never expected a man like him to even think to say something like this. Her bewildered stare was interrupted when the little dog in her arms licked her chin.

"Um... well... I would like that," she responded. And then she smiled.

"Thank you," added Sakura.

Itachi didn't say anything. He nodded before he strode off to bark orders at his men.

Life with the dogs made things much more exciting. Moegi squealed with joy when she saw them and tired herself out chasing them and rubbing their furry bellies. They spent equal parts of the day lazing around inside Sakura's tent begging for treats and pats on the head and then running around in the camp to work off the excess energy. At night, they piled around the bed with the smaller ones curling up against Sakura's side to keep her warm. The two largest dogs set themselves up by the tent flap, vigilant guards against the night. An added plus was that they all detested Kabuto and their aggravated snarls were more than enough to keep the silver-haired man far away.

When Sasuke first entered her tent to find the dogs lolling around like pampered pooches, he scowled his disapproval.

"You make them lazy. They will be weak," he grunted. When the largest hound ambled over for a pet, Sasuke pushed him away with a stern look. Tail between his legs, the dog moved to Sakura who lovingly rubbed his head and scratched between his ears.

"People and dogs are alike. They serve the ones they love the best," Sakura argued. There was a slight edge to her words and Sasuke seemed to catch on.

"You're not as delicate as you pretend to be," he guessed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she answered cheerfully. Shaking his head, Sasuke left.

A couple more days passed peacefully. They were making good time to the northern border. Sakura was gradually beginning to feel comfortable among these people. Just as she began to think that life might be significantly better here, things had to go wrong.

Just after supper one night, Sakura sent Moegi to get some wine to help her digest.

A scream rose from the camp somewhere. Sakura bolted upright, startling the dogs that had been napping peacefully around her. The smallest one, a little brown pug with a dark snout, rose to his feet and stared at her with intelligent black eyes.

"Lead me," she whispered as she quickly found her dressing gown and pulled it on. She hastily yanked her hands through the flowing sleeves and tied the belt. The dog snuffled before he ran past the tent flap. Sakura followed after him, still carrying her boots since it was too dark to try to lace them. She felt a wet nose touch her ankle as she hurried. One of the big dogs had followed after her as a guard.

The dog's yaps led her past other tents and around horses until she saw a small cluster of people. They were villagers, unarmed and clutching their children close. One woman stood isolated in the group. Her child was hugged tightly to her chest though she was rooted in place. Sakura quickly elbowed past people until she could see a coiled shape on the ground. It let out a hiss along with the telltale clatter of a rattle on the tail. Sakura frantically looked around for a soldier but none were in sight.

"Oh well," she sighed under her breath. She dropped the boots and she saw the snake turn its attention to her. It let out another hiss and the shape of its flickering tongue was visible in the wavering torchlight. Some hands grasped at her arms, trying to pull her back, but she easily slipped free.

"Ah. I hate snakes. Why did you have to be a snake?" complained Sakura. There was a collective gasp as she took another step toward the reptile. It shook its rattle menacingly again before opening its mouth to bare long fangs.

"Pucker up, darling," she said.

As the snake lunged, Sakura extended her right hand. Spinning her wrist in a circular motion, she grabbed its scaly body. Her thumb pressed against its lower jaw, squeezing its mouth shut. When it squirmed, Sakura let it flail with the expression that would be more fitting for someone watching a child throw a temper tantrum.

"A rattlesnake? He is seriously lacking in subtlety," scoffed Sakura. The rattle smacked furiously against her forearm as the reptile continued to twitch around. There was some new noise as more people pushed into the crowd. But from the glint of their armor and the pointy shapes of their spears, Sakura knew who had finally arrived.

"Good timing. Do you like my new pet? It's a little bitey," said Sakura as she turned to face Sasuke along with Kabuto. Eyes widening, Kabuto quickly said something in a hissing whisper. Sasuke pushed Kabuto aside, taking brisk strides forward. His hands were on her face, turning her head this way and that. His fingers trailed down her throat and then to her arms to pull up her sleeves. When he found her unharmed, he looked confused.

Lips curling, Sasuke said one word.

"Assassin?"

Sakura regarded the snake before she shook her left arm a little, jostling the creature until it began rattling again. There were more frightened cries from the onlookers.

"A present from my cousin. He can't wait to have me killed. I suspect he'll have more up his sleeve," she answered with boredom. This was an old game. She had been dodging poisonings and accidents from the very moment her uncle had fallen ill before passing away a month later. That had been nine years ago. Since then, her cousin had kept busy trying to find ways for her to quietly die so that his possession of his lands and title wouldn't be threatened. It was foolish, really. Sakura wasn't interested in his dinky little manor in the desert.

"I at least expected him to wait for me to settle in first. Such impatience," scoffed Sakura. Sasuke's eyes narrowed dangerously. He drew his sword, preparing to slay the snake.

"I have a better idea," Sakura said. A smile curling her lips, she motioned for one of the soldiers holding a torch. The man was too shocked to do anything but obey and hand it over. Sakura then shook the snake extra hard to momentarily daze it before she threw it on the ground. She quickly tossed the torch on top of the creature and she watched the beast burst into flames. It let out a hideous shriek as the fire enveloped its thin body. The smell of cooking meat curled into the air as the snake slowly ceased its thrashing. When the flames died down, all that was left was a twisted black lump. Sakura nudged the ashes with the tip of the spent torch until she recovered the fangs and the rattle.

Sakura looked around until she noticed Moegi hovering a little ways away. The girl seemed to have a knack for being there just when she was needed. When Sakura's eyes found her, Moegi approached in quick steps.

"Would you go to my tent and get me that gold box next to my bed?" requested Sakura. Moegi dashed off, returning a minute later with the glittering box. It had been a purchase from a friendly trader. When she had complimented the craftsmanship, he had offered it at a discount. When Moegi opened the lid, Sakura carefully placed the charred snake's fangs and rattle onto the cushioned surface.

Then, turning to Sasuke, Sakura let her expression harden.

"This may be inconvenient, but I need to get to the nearest market," she told him.

"Why?"

"I need to return the favor to my dear cousin," she answered while holding up the box. The venom in her voice seemed to please him.

The following morning, Sakura, along with Sasuke and a small group of guards, rode off to the nearest open market. It was a few miles away but the roads were well traveled and easy to navigate. Even in the cold of early winter, the stalls were busy. Live chickens, late harvest crops, and various relics were pushed toward them but Sakura quickly evaded them all. Instead, she glanced around in the corners of shadows, at the people who did not speak. When she finally met the eyes of a boy with dark hair and even darker eyes, she motioned him over.

"Do you know where I could get my hands on some puppets?" she asked, slipping a bronze coin into his grubby palm.

"Yeah. Some men from the south know about that," he immediately told her. Pushing another coin into his fingers, Sakura smiled.

"Then, would you be able to lead me to some people who might not like puppets so much?" Sakura pushed. The boy scrutinized her for a moment before he suddenly ducked into the nearest alley. Sasuke ordered the soldiers to look after their horses before he followed Sakura down the narrow squeeze.

"What are we doing?" he hissed behind her.

"My cousin is often called The Puppet in these circles. I need to make sure I contact the right people," she answered. They followed the patter of little footsteps until they emerged in a shadowed backstreet of the market. They were in the slums somewhere, easily distinguished by the strings of clothes left to hang overhead along with the yowls of stray cats. Sakura barely had time to take in her surroundings before the boy led them into a nondescript building.

"You brought customers? Good job, boy," a gruff voice said. Sakura waited for her eyes to adjust to the smoky room for a moment before she turned toward the voice. A smirk curled her lips.

"Danzo. It's been a while," she greeted the old man. Danzo swept an elegant bow, surprisingly dexterous for the bandages covering half his face and both his arms. He sat back down on the wooden crate set up by the door. In his right hand was a sharp dagger that he wiped on his shirt before laying it flat on his thigh. The little boy from before stood a little ways from him, his glance shifty.

"You brought me to a good person, boy. Nicely done," Sakura told him. She reached into her bag to toss him a little pouch filled with gold and tied shut. She could see him weighing the money in his right hand. It was probably more money than he had ever held in his life. When Sakura raised her eyebrows, clutching the money in his hands, the boy ran out of the building.

"I'd heard rumors that you'd been married off but to think that you would let yourself be tied down is a little disappointing, My Lady," said Danzo, gesturing to the chair across from him. Sakura didn't reply as she sat. Sasuke remained standing, despite the fact that there were other seats open. He stood beside her, hand tightly gripping his sword. It was a fearsome, curved thing that promised a nasty wound.

"I'd like for you to stop talking now," Sakura simply stated in return. She heard Sasuke choke on his breath a little in surprise. There was never any need to mince words with Danzo. In fact, Danzo seemed unsurprised by her spiky retort. Folding his hands together, he gestured for her to speak.

"My dearest cousin seems to have decided to do away with me completely. And you do know how I hate losing my life. I'd like for you to be my eyes and ears for a while. You would be paid handsomely for your services," she said. When she drew her hand into her cloak, she pulled out another bag of gold. She threw it to Danzo who promptly opened it to check the contents.

"You are smarter than your cousin, My Lady. Gold speaks better than empty promises," Danzo began in a silky voice.

Smiling, Sakura rose to her feet.

She walked over to hand him the golden box that she had concealed in the folds of her robe. Danzo opened the lid and then raised his eyebrow at her.

"A gift for him. It seems one of his pets escaped and found its way to me," she commented. Danzo smirked knowingly.

"As you command."

"Then I leave this in your hands, Danzo. Do not fail me," uttered Sakura and then she was out the door. She felt Sasuke's hand on her elbow as soon as they were in the dirty alleyway.

"What is the point of buying a spy? How will he protect you from your cousin?" Sasuke demanded in a low voice. Sakura raised her eyebrows. She was surprised at how much he understood from their exchange. Subtlety was the language that Danzo spoke. It would be hard enough for a native speaker to understand him.

"I did not buy one spy. Danzo has the largest network of spies in the kingdoms. He knows how to intercept messages and thwart assassins. I've paid him enough to keep me safe for quite some time," explained Sakura. Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"You cousin is not an extravagantly rich man. Where do you get this money?" he asked.

A smile stretched her mouth. Sakura reached out to press one finger to his lips.

"Secret."

* * *

The mystery groom that Sakura was searching for turned up in the most unexpected way. Early one evening, when frost was covering the dead grasslands, Sakura heard a surprising fact. She sat up. One of her favorite dogs, Pakkun, tumbled off her shoulder and down into her lap where he gave a disgruntled yap. She petted his head to soothe him while she stared into Itachi's eyes.

"My brother and I are sons of the king. That means that there are two candidates for the throne instead of one heir," Itachi patiently repeated.

"Are you telling me that whomever I choose to marry becomes king?" she slowly inquired. He nodded.

"But why? Why not just choose the older brother? Or the more popular one?" she went on to question. At this, Itachi leaned back on his palms with a sigh. He stared at her from under his dark eyelashes.

"It's not that simple. We may be a peoples led by a king, but we all come from women. Everyone knows that no strong king can be without a strong queen. So if a man can win the favor of a powerful bride, he is fit to rule," he explained. And then he plucked a grape from the bowl and threw it at Pakkun. The little pug snorted its discontent and then gobbled up the fruit anyway. Then, with what looked distinctly like a smirk, the dog waggled his tail and snuggled up in Sakura's lap. He curled up there, humming low in his throat as Sakura began stroking him between the ears.

"Interesting. I was unaware of such a custom," remarked Sakura. Then she looked over at Itachi again.

"So what does it mean to 'win my favor', exactly?" she asked. Itachi shrugged.

"Traditionally, you would accept a token from your spouse in a ritual. And then we'd ceremonially slaughter a boar, bathe in its blood, and have a feast before we head to the capital for a real wedding," he answered.

"Oh," she said in a faint voice, imagining all the blood.

"Now we just do the token exchange. More practical," Itachi continued. Sakura let out a sigh of relief and he chuckled. She laughed too, glad to finally see something other than an intimidating scowl hardening his face. He looked surprisingly young when he didn't have such a stony expression on. Tilting her head to the side, Sakura looked him over again.

"How old are you?" Sakura inquired.

There was a bell ringing outside as one of the soldiers called the dogs to their meal. Pakkun bolted out of the tent, barking all the way to his food. Sakura stifled a snort and even Itachi looked a little amused.

"I have 24 years," answered Itachi, drawing her attention again.

"24? And you and your brother are both generals?" gasped Sakura. And from the relatively little scarring on his face and body, Sakura could guess that The Crow was rarely ever injured in a fight. Itachi nodded again.

"You know, my cousin is 30 years old and he hasn't done much but visit brothels and try to have me killed," she scoffed. Itachi pursed his lips.

"I was under the impression that this is what most men of his ranking do," responded Itachi.

A startled laugh burst out of Sakura. She tried to cover her mouth with her hands as the unladylike noise spilled out of her. But her shoulders shook and tears sprang into her eyes as mirth took over. Her outburst seemed to have surprised Itachi just as much. He sat watching her carefully. When she pressed her fingers to cover her mouth, he reached out to pull them away.

"You don't laugh much. It's nice to hear," he told her. But Sakura only arched her eyebrows at him as the last of her laughter died down.

"You do realize that sweet-talk won't work on me now that I know what's going on?" she said. It was Itachi's turn to chuckle.

"That won't stop me."

When Pakkun returned later with a full stomach, he was surprised to find his favorite spot stolen. Sakura was sitting on the floor in the same place, humming quietly as she leafed through the pages of one of the new books she had picked up at the market that day. But in her lap was Itachi's head. He lay on his back, sprawled arrogantly across the rugs. When he opened his eyes, he spotted the disgruntled pug standing in the entrance. A triumphant smirk curled Itachi's lips.

"Mine now, mutt," he said before closed his eyes to relax in what was inarguably the most comfortable spot he had ever occupied.

It was not only The Crow who took time to visit Sakura. The Hawk was also a frequent visitor- though he preferred to come after dinner- usually when she was eating fruit after her meal.

"What did you do? Before this," asked Sasuke as he sat cross-legged to peel an orange. His sword was set down on the floor on the mat beside him. The usual war paint on his face was gone and it made him somehow seem much younger.

"What do you mean? I'm a noblewoman. I'm not supposed to do anything," Sakura replied. She ran a comb through her long hair, patiently working through the occasional tangles. She thought she heard Sasuke snort. Her fingers moved to begin braiding her long hair.

"There's no way a woman like you sat around under palm trees and laughing over- what do you call it? The fermented drink with grapes," Sasuke trailed off as he searched for the word. The fluid grace with which he spoke her language always impressed her. The only thing was that fewer years of study meant that he had fewer years of vocabulary to use. Every once in a while, he seemed to forget little words. Sakura looked at him in the mirror and caught the furrow in his brow. She glanced at her hair in the mirror for a moment to check if it looked strange.

"Wine?" she suggested. His expression evened out in the reflection.

"Wine," he agreed. Sakura tried not to giggle at the pride in his face.

"And you're correct. I'm not much of a palm person," she sighed. Sasuke's reflection looked up at her. Their eyes met in the mirror. Sakura tied her braid securely with a thick length of thread before tying a ribbon on top to conceal it. When she turned around to look at him, Sasuke had his chin propped up in his right hand.

"Intelligence," she said.

"Huh?"

"Intelligence. That was my job. I deal in secrets," Sakura told him.

"You're a spy," Sasuke flatly stated.

"I never said that," she replied in a serene tone.

"Then you control spies," Sasuke amended.

"I… know people who will tell me things about other people. And I use this to my advantage," was all Sakura said.

"You're powerful because you're smart," he summarized quite succinctly.

"Clever. You catch on quick," she finally agreed. Turning to face him, she flicked her braid over her shoulder.

* * *

"We chose poorly. She's not even a little frightened of us," Sasuke grunted in his native language as he entered his brother's tent without announcing himself. Itachi glanced up from his map for a brief instant to acknowledge Sasuke. But then he did a double take. Though Sasuke's face remained stony, the tips of his ears were pink. Quelling the urge to smile, Itachi rolled up the map and then straightened to lean against the edge of the table.

"Visiting _The Lady_?" Itachi needlessly asked. Sasuke glowered.

"We're almost home and she still hasn't chosen one of us," the younger of the two complained.

"What heinous act did she commit to make you this incensed, little brother?" asked Itachi.

That stopped Sasuke's rant dead in its tracks. Coughing loudly, Sasuke suddenly seemed to find the ground very interesting. But Itachi looked Sasuke over carefully before he raised an eyebrow.

"She kissed you," he surmised.

"An unmarried woman should not go around kissing any man. It's improper," grumbled Sasuke in confirmation. From the way the streaks of crimson and purple on his face smudged near his mouth, she hadn't given him a chaste peck.

"We're supposed to be seducing her but she's done a good job of winding us around her little finger, little brother," Itachi admitted. Both men let out a tired sigh. Sasuke's forehead wrinkled as he thought hard.

"What happens if she doesn't choose?" he suddenly demanded.

Itachi blinked slowly as he considered this.

"Well… I suppose… we would have to rule together until she picks one of us," he concluded. The brothers stared at one another.

"You don't think she's doing this on purpose knowing that, do you?" Itachi finally wondered out loud.

The tent flap suddenly moved and Sakura popped her head inside. The men froze.

"I don't know what you two are talking about, but I'm cold so whichever one of you brings me some warmed ale first will get a shoulder rub," she announced before she disappeared past the flap again.

Sasuke and Itachi sagged.

"On purpose," Itachi concluded while Sasuke gave a defeated nod as he got to his feet to go fetch her drink.


	3. Time

Sorry in advance. I wasn't in much of a fluffy, happy prompt kind of mood.

* * *

3. Time

(for SomebodyLost)

* * *

It all started with Naruto coming up with another one of his absurd techniques. The only reason Sakura bothered listening to him at all was that very often, his most ridiculous ideas ended up working out surprisingly well.

And on the occasions that things did end in disaster, it helped to have a trained medic already there to clean up his messes.

So Sakura showed up at their usual training grounds after a grueling day at the ER. Hands on her hips, she stood a safe distance away from Naruto and his complex system of seals. As his fingers twisted into the final shape, she began to wonder if she was seeing things or if his hands were actually beginning to glow. Before she had time to really consider this, she was enveloped in bright light and then she felt herself tumbling endlessly.

As vague colors blurred past, Sakura found herself spinning wildly until she connected abruptly with the ground. The taste of metal was in her mouth. Head still fuzzy from the sheer force of the impact, Sakura lay on her back, staring up at the sky.

"Are you okay, big sis?"

Sakura blinked as a face appeared above her. Wide blue eyes stared down at her. In her daze, it took Sakura much too long to realize just why they looked so familiar to her. In fact, it wasn't until she heard the boy yell, "Oi, Perverted Sage! Come here! Look what I found!" that she realized who it was.

"Naruto!" she gasped, scrambling away from him. Her back hit a tree. And the boy blinked at her with clear cerulean eyes.

"Uh, hi," he said in response. Crossing his arms behind his head, he scrutinized her until his nose scrunched with the effort.

"Do I know you, big sis?" Naruto queried.

And it was then Jiraiya emerged from the bushes with a harried look twisting his face.

And it was at that moment that Sakura replaced herself with a log and got the hell out of there. Sakura had no idea what little town she had landed in, but it didn't take long for her to chat with some locals and discover that she was only a few hours' journey from Konoha. After some travel, Sakura began to recognize the twists and turns of the forest path and soon found herself home.

After some secret snooping around the village, Sakura found out several different things.

The first was that the one time her father had gone out to buy milk and had gotten sidetracked helping an old lady walk home was a lie. She spied him in a pachinko parlor, poorly disguised in sunglasses and a scarf wrapped around his head.

The second was that, somehow, it was six years in the past. At first, Sakura had doubted her eyes. But then she realized that she summoned slugs with her blood and Naruto hadn't died after all the years of nothing but ramen. If so, then somehow, time travel had indeed occurred and Sakura was not going to hurt her brain trying to deny it.

The third was that she was here. In the village. And her hair was as short as it had ever been.

Crouched in a dark alley, Sakura struggled to process all these facts at once.

According to her hair, it was sometime after the Chunin exams had taken place. However, it couldn't have been long. Because she was walking with Ino and laughing stupidly about a conversation that really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

There had been no sorrow in her posture.

Sasuke hadn't left yet.

Sakura struggled to remember what Naruto had told her all those years ago when she had barely been listening. Something big had happened to the village- big enough that all the Jounin had been on high alert at once. It was there, like a word hanging on the tip of her tongue but stubbornly refusing to fall.

There was something about an inn and a confrontation. And the more she grasped for those memories, the clearer it became. She suddenly recalled the name of an inn. She remembered the bruises on Sasuke's pale neck and the anger that had boiled underneath his gaze. And she remembered Naruto's expression of utter defeat as he sullenly stole glances at the boy he considered his best friend.

Her feet were moving before she had made her decision. Without a second thought, they retraced the path they had taken through the forest just hours before.

They carried her until she picked up on the distinctively loud trail of Naruto's chakra. Even now, before he had even learned how to properly use it, it was strong. She thanked the universe for that.

Cloaking her own chakra, Sakura checked into a room in the same inn and then spent the rest of the evening scouring the halls and stairwells for a hiding spot. Kunai clenched tightly in her fist, she hid in the shadows and prayed that she was somehow right and wrong at the same time.

But she felt the angry explosion of Naruto's chakra, followed by Sasuke's. And then she sensed the swell of Jiraiya's technique. Holding her breath, she waited until she felt two chakra signatures flicker nearby as they escaped the fray. And like some awful miracle, she realized that they were much closer than she had expected. She heard the door at the end of the hall open. And then there were two sets of footsteps on the wood floors.

"I didn't expect him to come after you like that," sighed a deep voice.

"I did."

"Uchiha Itachi," Sakura whispered. And as his eyes darted to the source of the sound, she flung herself forward. Kunai gripped tight in her hand, she jammed it into the wall directly beside his head. The plaster cracked and scattered in white powder around the point of the weapon.

His hand flew out, clenching painfully into her bones and flesh. The bright red of his sharingan flooded his irises as he stared down at her.

"You must be either foolish or brave to attack me, kunoichi," he stated in a flat voice. The collar of his black cloak hid his mouth.

"Just shut up and listen to me. This is about Sasuke," she hissed. And suddenly the bruising grip on her shoulder relaxed.

"It's not going to work, Itachi," Sakura declared. He stared blankly at her. And those eyes. The eyes that would one day become Sasuke's pierced her to the core. Sakura was intensely aware of Itachi's blue partner staring at her to her right but also acutely ignored his presence.

"Pardon?" Itachi slowly said.

"Your plan isn't going to work. Sasuke will despair. And he will die. And he will have suffered for nothing," Sakura uttered in a low voice. Something sparked in Itachi's gaze. His eyelashes were long, she noticed needlessly.

It was only then that Sakura felt the stinging pain in her right arm. When she looked over, she saw the scale-like blades of Samehada grazing her skin. A thin trickle of blood wet her elbow guard. Without looking at it again, she channeled chakra to the area to mend the torn upper layers of skin. She saw Itachi's eyebrows rise.

"Kill me and you'll never know what I'm about to tell you," she warned even as her voice quavered.

"Perhaps we should move, then," Itachi suggested. His eyes flickered over her shoulder for a brief instant. And it only took Sakura another second to realize that he meant Jiraiya's chakra signature swelling up as he searched for them.

"Lead the way," she said, fingers still clenched around the weapon. She saw Itachi's gaze flit to Kisame once before Kisame grabbed hold of her arm and then all three of them disappeared.

The body flicker pulled them into a random expanse of forest far away. Sakura snarled when she was dumped unceremoniously on the ground. But as she rose to her feet, ready to spit out an angry jibe at the rough treatment, the two men wordlessly communicated something. Kisame hefted his oversized sword over his shoulder and then walked off into the woods, presumably to keep watch.

"You wanted to talk," Itachi said, drawing Sakura's gaze.

"I already told you," replied Sakura in a tired voice, "Sasuke dies. He never achieves his crazed quest for vengeance."

There was an awkward pause. And then Itachi cleared his throat softly.

"And… me?" inquired Itachi with marked hesitation.

"Dead," she promptly answered. And then she added with some venom, "Twice."

"Twice," he repeated.

"I'm not sure on the details myself. But you die. And you stay that way the second time," she snapped.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Sakura sighed. Maybe if she squeezed tightly enough, she could keep all the suffocating feelings inside and all the ugly thoughts outside. She stared off at the sky, shoulders tight. The sun was beginning to set and it tinged the clouds a soft shade of gold.

"You are… Sasuke's teammate?" Itachi's broke voice the silence.

"_Was_," she corrected with a bitter note, "You can't be teammates with a dead man."

Turning to him, Sakura opened her mouth to let another barb fly free. But for the briefest instant, Sakura caught a glimmer of something in his gaze. She seized his arm and the quick motion elicited an immediate response. His hand went for her throat, holding it but not quite restricting her breathing.

"You're just a child, aren't you," she uttered. Itachi blinked- the only indication that he had registered her words at all.

"I know, I know. I'm not much older than you. But still…"

Her hands came up to his face. She hesitated for a brief moment before she found the zipper to his cloak and slowly pulled it down to reveal his chin and his frowning mouth. Fingertips running over his cheekbones, she examined him carefully. And for some strange reason, he didn't move to stop her.

He could have been beautiful if not for the hollowness that steeped itself into every part of his face.

"I know what happens. I know how you did it. And I know why you did it. And I know that it's all out of love for your brother," she whispered. Itachi's eyes narrowed.

"Then why are you telling me to stop?" demanded Itachi in a flat voice.

"Because six months after we defeat the man you call Tobi, Sasuke kills himself."

Her words fell, a leaden weight between them. Itachi's hands loosened before falling limply to his sides.

"What?"

"He hanged himself. I found him three days later," said Sakura. Her gut clenched as she uttered the poisonous words. She refused to remember what she had seen. All she had done was scream and scream for Naruto until her voice had gone. And even when Naruto had dragged her from the room, tears flowing down his cheeks, she hadn't stopped shrieking. She had refused to attend the funeral, out of some crazed belief that somehow Sasuke would climb out of that coffin.

Her truth seemed to have suffocated any words left in Itachi. They stood staring at one another. Slowly, Itachi's eyes narrowed. And Sakura knew that he was searching for any hint of artifice in her face.

"Uchiha Itachi," whispered Sakura. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she looked directly at him. It was so dangerous. He could plunge her into days of torture with just one glance. But her heart ached and swelled and she knew at that moment, that this boy could not hurt her.

Sakura rested her palm on his cheek.

"You won't listen to me. You will carry out your crazy plan and you will die and then Sasuke will die too. And I'll be left with whatever disaster you stupid brothers leave behind," she sighed.

She was defeated.

Sakura slowly took a step back from him and folded her hands over her heart.

And from what sounded like far away, Sakura heard Naruto shout her name. And for the first time, in front of the boy who was 16, in front of the boy who had once had to say goodbye to his parents in the worst way possible, Sakura curled her mouth up in a smile.

"I guess it's time for me to go home. I haven't changed your mind at all," she added.

"What did you even hope to accomplish?" demanded Itachi as her fingertips turned transparent.

Letting out a helpless laugh, Sakura just shrugged. More tears dripped down her cheeks.

"I don't even know."

Sakura felt Naruto's hand closing around her upper arm. And then he was pulling her back, back to where she belonged.

Just before the world disappeared in another blur of colors, Sakura knew that she saw Itachi's hand grasping for her. That lingered in her mind even as she spun around and around until when she landed, she wasn't sure which way was up or down.

Naruto thought she was crying because he had scared her with his new technique. She didn't bother to correct him. Trembling and sniveling pathetically, Sakura let him rock her in his arms until the shaking finally stopped.

He offered to walk her home, still blaming himself for her tears. But Sakura refused with a brave smile. It wasn't until she was back in her room with the door locked that Sakura felt her knees give out.

Upon Sasuke's death, Sakura had stared at the box sitting on Tsunade's desk that contained the few possessions he had left behind. There was so little. The universe seemed to be so ready to let his memories scatter into dust. She had reached in, taking the first thing her fingers had closed around. It was a dusty wooden frame with the smiling faces of the family he had lost so early on. Naruto took the rest of the box. He didn't say, but Sakura knew it was gathering dust in the darkest corner of his closet.

Staring down at the picture frame cradled in her hands, looking at the grinning face of the boy who had died so many times in her heart, Sakura cried for the family that had been so irreparably torn apart that one awful night when a boy had tried to save his little brother.

* * *

Thank you to everyone for your reviews and prompts. i suppose I should have said this earlier, but I would prefer prompts limited to a simple word or two. I'm very grateful for everyone who gives me a long description for a very specific oneshot. However, these ideas are your own and I would feel wrong making them into my own stories. The one-word prompt system makes it so that I can use everyone's input while forcing myself to be creative.


	4. Bounty

4. Bounty

* * *

With a heavy thud, a large burlap bag fell to the floor. Itachi looked up from his book to arch an eyebrow. Putting his hands on his hips, Naruto flashed him a bright grin.

"What're you smirking for? I'm the one that carried that damn thing," snapped Sasuke. He punched him in the stomach as he shoved past. Grimacing, Naruto pulled a wrinkled sheet of paper from his pocket. Holding it up, Naruto showed off the face printed on the front of the Wanted poster.

"Big bounty! Almost 100,000 platinum!" he exclaimed. Itachi squinted in the darkness to read.

"Wanted: HS-A/1 for inte- Naruto. This thing is ripped," pointed out Itachi. The bottom right corner of the sheet had been torn off, as if hastily yanked from a bulletin board in a bar somewhere. But Naruto shrugged.

"Interrogation. What else could it be?" Naruto said lightly. Eyeing the sheet dubiously, Itachi stared at it for an extra minute. His attention then shifted back on the slightly twitching bag. He nudged it lightly with the toe of his shoe and the bag shook harder.

"Naruto… Is there a person in here?" inquired Itachi.

"Huh? Well, yeah." Naruto scratched the back of his head with a blasé expression.

"But I thought you two were out to get some more food."

"Yeah. But we found this one on the way. It only took 2 tranquilizer darts too."

"Naruto," Sasuke sighed as he walked back in the room, "Old man Kakashi said one of those things is strong enough to take down a horse." Sasuke rolled his eyes and Itachi looked back at the bag with fresh concern.

"If the target's dead, we don't get the reward. No pulse, no interrogation," Itachi said. The smile dropped from Naruto's face. Fixing Naruto with a pointed look, Itachi got off of the old wooden crate he had been sitting on. He set his book down on the box and crouched next to the bag.

"I swear. If we've got another corpse, Naruto, you have to clean it up this time," growled Sasuke as he stomped over to join them.

"Hopefully not," remarked Itachi lightly while cutting the cord holding the bag shut. He pulled the mouth of the bag open to reveal a head of bright pink hair. As he pulled the burlap down further, indignant eyes flaring bright green glared up at him. Itachi eyed the thick tape slapped across her mouth.

"Allow me," said Itachi. He ripped the tape off and a soft hiss of pain slipped through the revealed lips. A murderous glower and a furrow in her brow was all else that answered his actions.

"Well, she's alive," Naruto said. Sasuke glared at him.

"When is Kakashi supposed to meet up with us?" inquired Itachi.

"A week from now. He's going to drop our last bounty and then he's meeting up with Kakuzu to talk about payment. You know how those old bastards argue," Naruto answered.

Balancing on the balls of his feet in front of the woman, Itachi stared up at the rickety wooden ceiling and sighed. When he looked back at the woman, she was staring so menacingly at Naruto that he was slowly backing away, despite the fact that she would be unable to stir for at least the next 12 hours. Itachi tried his best not to smirk.

"Well, if we release her, things might get ugly so I guess we'll keep her around until Kakashi gets back. We'll decide then," decided Itachi. Sasuke seemed satisfied with this logical decision and said nothing as he walked out of the room with his hands in his pockets. Naruto, on the other hand, suddenly seemed unsure about his actions.

"Uh... toilet," he muttered as he scuttled away from the accusatory glower of the woman on the ground.

That left Itachi sitting there to wonder if this woman glared enough, laser beams would shoot out of her eyes.

"We have water or coffee if you'd like either once you're not paralyzed anymore," Itachi told her.

The woman was just staring at him with a dumbfounded expression. Her lips didn't quite move right from the drug's effects but he could see the disdain in the slight downward curl of her mouth.

When he retuned a few hours later, she was still lying on the floor. He caught her struggling to wiggle her fingers. But as soon as he stepped into the room, she went still, pretending to be a dead lump of nothing on the ground.

The men took turns sleeping, one always staying awake to watch the woman. Just after dawn, there was the snap of rope breaking apart. Then, there was a muffled thud and a short yelp of pain from Naruto. Itachi turned on the light to find the woman's thighs wrapped around Naruto's throat, compressing his windpipe until he turned blue. She was on her back, bound hands resting on her stomach she squeezed her legs together. Naruto clawed frantically at her shins, trying to pry her off. Itachi rolled his eyes.

"If you would be so kind," he began in a drawl. Both people's eyes flitted to him. Naruto made a pleading wheeze.

"To release my stupid friend, I would appreciate it," Itachi concluded.

The woman stared at him with narrowed eyes before she glanced down at Naruto. With a scoff, she unwound her legs from his neck and sat up. She then held her hands up to Itachi with an expectant glower.

"Did you fall asleep?" Itachi guessed. He reached for the knife in his back pocket and sliced neatly through the ropes. The angry smolder in her gaze intensified as she focused in on her reddened wrists while she rubbed them together.

"No!" Naruto immediately answered. And then he scratched the back of his head.

"I closed my eyes for like five seconds," added Naruto.

Itachi sighed heavily.

The woman cleared her throat and Itachi looked over at her again.

"I'll take that water now," she said. Her voice was surprisingly low yet still feminine. It took a moment for her words to process and then Itachi chuckled. He dipped his head in a nod to her.

"Of course," he responded.

With one look from Itachi, Naruto left the room, still grumbling about his neck as he went. The woman sat on the floor as she stretched. Her movements were smooth and purposeful. The stretches themselves were carefully measured out in equal increments of time. He could see the way her back muscles shifted through her shirt when she lifted her arms over her head. The lean muscles in her arms and legs were not indicators of a sedentary lifestyle. But she didn't have the look of a person with such a big bounty on her head.

She accepted the glass of water from him without thanks. But as she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, she froze for a long moment. When she turned to scrutinize Itachi, he stood completely still, waiting for her to speak.

She handed the empty glass back to him.

"Do you think I would poison you?" he guessed. But the woman scoffed.

"Don't be ridiculous. I know a nest of bounty hunters when I see one. You can't collect bounty on a corpse in this part of the world," she answered.

"My...apologies for your previous rough treatment. Those two can be rather...unscrupulous," Itachi said in his smoothest voice.

"Unscrupulous," repeated the woman with a sneer, "Barbaric, more like. I've never been slung over someone's shoulder like a dead animal before."

"I find that hard to believe. You're an attractive woman," Itachi quipped back.

She fixed him with a hard look.

"A for effort in flattery. Truly. Now escort me to the nearest bathroom," she retorted.

Itachi heard a snort of laughter. He whipped his head around just in time to see the top of Naruto's head disappear around the corner. His eyes narrowed.

"Maybe I shouldn't have stopped her from crushing _someone's _head," he commented just loudly enough for his voice to carry.

* * *

The prisoner was understandably irritable for the first few days. Her soul-crushing glares and snarls generally kept the men at bay. Naruto, in particular, was sure to keep his bruised neck far away from her.

Itachi was an exception to this trend. But his partners had long ago come to accept that he was somewhat insane.

Each time he left the room, he came away with some new bruise or cut. And yet, his dark eyes sparkled so much that Sasuke began to wonder if he should intervene. Or better yet, another part of him wanted to flee from his older brother and his strange perversions.

"Leave him. He's a total M," chortled Naruto with a reassuring thump to his best friend's back.

"M?" Sasuke repeated without looking away. He was peering through a small crack in the door.

"A masochist," clarified Naruto. And as the blond spoke, Itachi took a step toward the woman, hands sliding over her waist. The woman grabbed a glass ashtray and lobbed it straight at Itachi's head.

The little eavesdropping session was interrupted by the door suddenly bursting open. The woman's face was livid as she stared down at Naruto and Sasuke crouching there in the darkness.

"How much longer did you say until that guy comes back?" she demanded.

"About four days," Sasuke promptly answered with wide eyes.

"Then keep him," she punctuated the pronoun with a jabbing point at Itachi, "And his grabby hands **far** away from me!" With that, she stormed off, leaving Sasuke staring blandly at the dent the doorknob had made in the wall. Then, he looked over and saw that Itachi was now standing in the doorway, a vaguely satisfied expression on her face.

"Did you touch her butt?" demanded Naruto.

"No," Itachi answered innocently.

"You wanted to touch her butt. And she threw an ashtray at your head," Sasuke answered for him with a tired drawl.

"Did she miss?" Naruto asked.

"Not at all," sighed Itachi, pressing his hand to the lump on his forehead.

* * *

When Kakashi arrived a few days later, Sakura was wedged into the corner of the old sofa, knees tucked firmly against her chest. There was a book held up in front of her face and, feeling a stare on her, she would periodically peer over the top to deal an acidic glare to Itachi sitting on the other end of the sofa.

"Do you really need to sit close to me?" she finally growled after several minutes of this.

"I prefer it this way," answered Itachi with a smile.

"Well I'd prefer you go throw yourself out the window but we can't all have what we want," she muttered under her breath as her head disappeared behind the book again. Itachi let out a short huff of amusement just as a man walked in through the door.

"Oh. Kakashi. You're back early," Itachi greeted him without any hint of enthusiasm.

Kakashi slapped a gloved hand to his forehead.

"I thought Naruto was concussed when he told me what happened! Why the hell do you have her captive?" demanded Kakashi, waving his finger wildly toward Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke quietly tip-toed into the room. They could clearly sense a lecture coming on. Naruto handed the wanted poster over to Kakashi for him to examine. And Kakashi looked it over for all of five seconds before he let out a groan.

"I don't see what the problem is, Kakashi. She has a bounty on her head. She's alive. We were going to hand her in when you got back," Itachi reported.

"This is Sakura. The police have been looking for her everywhere these past few days," Kakashi impatiently said, waving the wanted poster beside her face. Sakura snapped the book shut and shot Itachi an extra glare.

"For interrogation, right? This'll be a huge bounty, right, Kakashi?" Naruto said with the look of an excited puppy waiting for a treat. Kakashi rolled the poster up and instead smacked Naruto on the nose.

"No, you moron. Sakura's the best processor the database has! The country's criminal databanks have come to a standstill since she went missing!" he sighed with exasperation.

"Processor? So she works on like computers and stuff?" Sasuke queried.

"More like I **am** the computer processor. I sort through all the criminal files and storage banks for case files in the country," Sakura finally spoke up as she folded her arms over her chest.**  
**

"Then what was the poster for?" demanded Sasuke. Kakashi pointed to half of a symbol on the torn edge of the paper.

"This, if our dear Naruto hadn't ripped it up, was the seal of the Akatsuki Corporation. They were looking for someone who could get Sakura's contact for _Intellectual Consultation_ since she's near impossible to get a hold of," retorted Kakashi.

There was a long silence as all the information seemed to clank through the gears in everyone's heads. And then Naruto's face lit up before it sank into lines of disappointment.

"Oh," he simply said.

"You, take me back to wherever these idiots picked me up," Sakura ordered, pointing between Kakashi's eyes. She shook her head as she watched Sasuke advancing on Naruto with clenched fists.

"I don't suppose you'd let us bring you to the Akatsuki Corporation for our reward first?" ventured Kakashi.

"I will punch you in the solar plexus. No," huffed Sakura, turning on her heel to leave.

Four days later, Sakura was back in the archives of Konoha's Databanks. Sucking in a deep breath, she pressed her palm to the round button on the console and the round sensors placed on her temples stopped glowing. As the streams of informations tapered off inside her brain, Sakura did mental inventory to check that no information had gotten left behind before she hit the button again and her eyes flew open. Disconnected from the database completely, Sakura peeled the sensors off her face before she hit the red square button for the intercom.

"Alright, good work, everyone. We're still really behind but we're getting there. You're free to go home for the day. I'll see you early tomorrow morning," she said into the intercom. There was a muffled noise of relief mixed with creaking and rustling as everyone got out of their chairs and gathered their things. Letting out a tired noise of her own, Sakura leaned against the console for a few extra seconds before she began typing in the codes to secure the systems for the night. By the time she had gotten her things from her locker and handed over her keys to security, it was already dark out.

Puling up the collar of her jacket against the cold, Sakura pretended not to notice the shape out of the corner of her eye.

"This is three days in a row. I'm going to call the police," she stated, looking ahead.

"No, you're not. Otherwise you would have done that the first night," Itachi responded as his hands slipped into the pockets of his coat.

"Is this common bounty hunter behavior? Stalking people?" she snorted.

"Actually, yes. But you're not a bounty. It's late. Do you want to get dinner?" Itachi proposed in return. When he took a step toward her, Sakura turned and began a brisk stride down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

"No, I don't want dinner. Now stop following me," she snapped over her shoulder. Then, stealing a quick glance at him, Sakura shoved her hands into her pockets.

"How long are you going to keep following me anyway?" she demanded.

Letting out a leisurely sigh, Itachi easily kept up with her pace.

"Oh, just until you fall in love with me. Don't worry. It shouldn't take you long," answered Itachi with a smug look.


	5. Wind

5. Wind

(for LilithiaRW)

* * *

"Let's be honest, Shikamaru. That makes absolutely no sense," laughed Sakura as she tossed a grape up in the air. She caught it in her open mouth. Ino and Chouji clapped approvingly at her performance, prompting her to give a little mock bow.

"What makes no sense?" Naruto asked as he returned from his trip to the bathroom. He flicked whatever water remained on his hands at Sakura, earning a light punch in the leg before he sat down on her right.

"Shikamaru's been talking about science and hurting my brain," Ino answered. Clasping his hands in front of him, Shikamaru leveled Ino with a serious look.

"Okay, I'm just saying that if we know that the universe is huge. Beyond huge. Gigantic. Then it's possible that there are parallel universes. Like equally immense and endless universes running just along ours," insisted Shikamaru.

"Yeah, but if this universe is, as you put it, 'ever-expanding', then how are we supposed to believe that there's more than one of them?" Sakura argued.

"Just humor me," sighed Shikamaru.

"What do you think we've been doing these past ten years?" muttered Ino. She and Chouji exchanged knowing smiles, pretending not to feel Shikamaru's glare on them.

"Sounds like us with Naruto," muttered Sasuke. He was lying on his back to Sakura's right, arms folded behind his head and eyes closed. There was a pleasant breeze blowing in through the open doors to the backyard and Sasuke definitely seemed to be enjoying it. When he cracked an eye open, Sakura met his gaze and flashed a smile before consuming another grape.

"Okay. So the universe is as big as infinity. And there's more than one?" Naruto summed up the ideas presented thus fair. Everyone paused their chattering to stare at him. This, coming from the person who had once blown up his microwave heating up aluminum foil was more than surprising. But Naruto only blinked expectantly so Shikamaru continued.

"Yeah. Exactly. So if there are all of these universes where little things are different, don't you think there would have to be a universe where parallel universes don't exist?" Shikamaru questioned.

There was a long pause. And then Ino laughed.

"I think you lost him there, Shikamaru," she snickered. Sakura and Chouji's faces were scrunched up as they thought. But after a while, they exchanged shrugs.

"That's a paradox, isn't it?" Sakura finally spoke up.

"You would think it is, but it also makes sense. I think it's possible," replied Shikamaru.

"Well, what do you think, Naruto?" Sakura finally asked, turning to her teammate. For a moment, her eyes flickered over to Sasuke stretched out beside her. During the course of the conversation, he had rolled onto his stomach. He idly tossed a few wasabi peas in his hand as he listened to the topics brought up. He popped one of the spicy peas into his mouth and crunched through it with a soft crackle.

Finally, Naruto leaned back on his hands.

"What you guys are saying is that the universe is pretty damn big. If we don't even know everything about our universe, then it wouldn't be right to start ruling out other possibilities or to make any assumptions either, right?" he finally responded. After a long pause, Shikamaru and Sakura exchanged looks of disgust.

"He's a politician, alright," scoffed Shikamaru.

"Well, this is our future Hokage. He's going to have to please the people," Sakura sighed as she nodded her head. When she slapped Naruto on the back with a sigh, he scowled.

"Hey, you asked for my opinion!" he insisted. Sakura slapped him again. But this time, he caught her arm in time and brandished his free hand with a threatening wiggle of his fingers.

"Tickle me and I'll send you to an early grave," Sakura warned him, smile evaporating. Naruto hesitated for a moment before Ino solemnly shook her head behind Sakura.

On the way home, bellies full and mouths smiling, Sasuke and Naruto walked Sakura back to her apartment. Sakura stole glances at her two teammates every so often until Naruto grinned.

"Checking us out, Sakura-chan?" he teased.

"Just because she hasn't punched you into a wall yet today doesn't mean she won't, idiot," warned Sasuke with his arms crossed behind his head.

"The both of you are stupid. I was just… looking," Sakura retorted with a poor attempt at nonchalance.

"Aw, did you really miss us while we were away on that mission, Sakura-chan?" Naruto chortled. Scoffing loudly, Sakura crossed her arms over her chest.

"Don't be ridiculous," she muttered.

"We were only gone for 10 days, Sakura-chan. And you're stuck with us for pretty much forever so don't worry," guffawed Naruto, bumping his hip against hers.

Sakura's fist connected with the back of his head.

"Who missed you, you idiot? Come on, Sasuke-kun," she growled before she stalked ahead of them. And Sasuke shrugged his shoulders in a clear "I-told-you-so" gesture before he strolled after her.

"Sakura-chan! You're so cold! Frigid!" Naruto called after her and he saw her turn around to stick her tongue out at him from down halfway down the block. She let out a shriek of laughter when Naruto ran after her to catch her in a headlock. And no matter how much both of them pleaded with Sasuke to take their sides, he just smirked at their antics.

Two days later, there was a loud crash from Sasuke's room. Uchiha Fugaku slowly looked up from his newspaper toward his wife. But Mikoto continued casually chopping vegetables up as if the entire house wasn't shaking.

"Did I miss something?" he asked. Only then did Mikoto glance his way.

"Oh, don't worry. Naruto-kun and Sasuke went drinking last night and poor Sakura-chan had to come drag them back here even though they have a mission today," Mikoto replied. Fugaku shook his head.

"Sakura-chan, I'm sorry!"

"Why are you in my room anyway? The both of you!"

"How many times have I told you not to get so drunk before a mission? Do you think I'm always going to get rid of your hangovers for you?"

"Well, to be fair, Sakura-chan, you always do, so it's no- OWOWOW sorry! Sorry, you're right!"

There was another series of loud thumps before the door slammed shut and Sakura came storming down the stairs.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan. It's so nice of you to come check on the boys after you carried them all the way here last night. Would you like some breakfast?" Mikoto said as Sakura appeared in the doorway. Blowing her bangs out of her way with an angry huff, Sakura threw a glare in the direction of the stairs before she bowed.

"Yes, that would be great, thank you. Good morning," sighed Sakura, seating herself comfortably at the end of the table.

"Did you come in through the window?" Fugaku questioned.

"Yes, sir," answered Sakura without hesitation. Fugaku gave a grunt of approval before his head disappeared behind the newspaper again.

By the time Naruto and Sasuke stumbled down the stairs, Sakura was already chowing down on her rice and pickled vegetables. She took a long slurp of miso soup as she stared at her two teammates hovering in the doorway. Her icy regard for them acted as a sort of barrier.

"Eat. We'll be late," she finally said after a long silence. Letting out sighs of relief, Naruto and Sasuke also sat down at the table. As the tension eased and conversation bubbled up around mouthfuls, the front door slid open. There were quiet footsteps and then someone appeared in the doorway.

"Ah. We have a full house today. Good morning."

There was another spoonful of rice on the way to Sakura's mouth as she opened her eyes and found Uchiha Itachi standing there.

Panting. Sweaty. Shirtless. Obviously just returning from his morning training.

It was all Sakura could do to force nonchalance and quickly tear her gaze from the beads of sweat dripping down the side of his neck as she blurted out a greeting. Her eyes met Itachi's and he offered her a smile. Feeling her face warm, Sakura only held his gaze for as long as she had to before she quickly looked away. Unfortunately, her gaze landed on Naruto, who only snickered at her discomfort.

The force of her glower was enough to make his blood run cold.

"Sakura-chan's making her demon face, Sasuke," whispered Naruto when she got up to get water. Though Sasuke usually rolled his eyes at Naruto's dumb comments, this time, Sasuke stole a secret glance at Sakura and subtly nodded.

"The icy demon queen," muttered Sasuke under his breath.

On her way back to her seat, Sakura pinched the sensitive skin on Sasuke's upper arm, making him flinch. Itachi chuckled before he left the doorway to head upstairs to change.

* * *

When Uchiha Itachi finished his next mission a few weeks later, he walked through the gates into the village and noticed an odd soreness in his shoulders. He was accustomed to a certain degree of soreness after years of training. But this felt distinctly like the type of pain that usually was followed by an overnight stay at the hospital. Still, he had to report to the Hokage and debrief her before anything else. Sending the rest of his team to their homes to rest, Itachi headed alone to the Hokage's office.

However, when he had finished laying out the events of the last few days to the Hokage, Tsunade peered at him over her laced fingers with an odd look.

"Are you in pain, Uchiha?" she queried.

Itachi was tempted to brush off her concerns but it occurred to him that the Hokage was a doctor. And an immensely talented one at that. She would see through his lie in a heartbeat.

"I seem to have strained something, Hokage-sama," admitted Itachi. Shutting the file on her desk, Tsunade pointed a manicured finger at the door.

"I've heard everything I need to know. Go to the hospital and find Sakura. She'll fix you right up," ordered Tsunade.

"Sakura? My brother's teammate?" Itachi couldn't help but ask. Her round eyes and bright smile often reminded him of some sort of puppy. She and Naruto had been in and out of his house ever since they had been Genin.

"Don't give me that face, Uchiha. That's an order from your Hokage," Tsunade added with a hint of a smile. Bowing his head once, Itachi disappeared in a puff of smoke. He reappeared in his room at home to change out of his standard ANBU uniform before making his way to the hospital.

But when he asked the nurse at reception if Sakura was available, the nurse informed him, "Sakura-san took the day off today."

By some wild stroke of luck, at that very moment, Naruto walked into the lobby. His right arm was in a sling.

"Oh! Hey there, Itachi-nii-chan! What're you doing here?" the blond greeted him with a bright grin. When he saw Itachi looking at his injured arm, he laughed sheepishly.

"Arm wrestling. I lost. Thank goodness it's Sakura-chan's day off. She'd kill me if she saw this," sighed the blond. Then Naruto blinked a few times.

"Yeah, so what're you here for?" he went on to question. Itachi's mouth pulled downwards.

"My shoulders have been bothering me so Tsunade-sama instructed me to come to Sakura," admitted Itachi.

"Ah, well, that sucks. Sakura-chan gives the best massages," Naruto replied with a one-armed shrug.

They stood looking around the lobby for a moment before Naruto glanced Itachi's way again.

"Why don't you just go visit her? It's her day off so she's probably at home cleaning or something. Actually, she'll probably be busy. But you should try," suggested Naruto. Itachi frowned.

"That might be rude," protested Itachi. But Naruto clapped him on the shoulder with his trademark grin.

"No worries, Nii-chan. Since you're Sasuke's brother, you get special privilege," the blond assured him. That logic made little sense to Itachi. He had heard more stories from Sasuke of Sakura's temper and angry fist of retribution than anything else. Still, he also wanted this matter resolved quickly and efficiently and so he nodded. Naruto gave Itachi the address before he waved and headed out past the glass doors. Itachi stood deliberating for a few more minutes before, with a sigh, he left the busy hospital to head for his brother's teammate's apartment.

It was surprising that she lived in such an area. Itachi vaguely recalled Sakura living with her parents the few times he had picked his brother up from their place. Apparently she had moved out on her own. The apartment building itself was a white rectangle with uniform windows lined up along the sides. It wasn't far from the Academy and it was located far enough from the market that the streets were rather quiet. As he climbed up the stairs to the third floor, Itachi suddenly heard his mother's voice.

"Remember, Itachi, it's rude to visit someone's home without bringing some sort of gift. Even if it's just some fruit, it's a way to show your appreciation for their hospitality."

Itachi half considered heading back to the market to pick up some apples. But then he felt the soreness in his shoulders and decided against it.

Instead, he rang the round button for the doorbell and watched it light up orange under his finger.

He could hear her footsteps tapping around inside. There was a thud and then Sakura's voice hissing what might have been a curse before the lock clicked and the door swung open. Sakura peered up at him. Her cheeks were pink and her hair was pulled up in a messy bun. He could smell lemons.

"Hi?" she said with visible confusion.

"Hello. Tsunade-sama sent me," Itachi responded. Sakura's eyes narrowed. She didn't say anything but opened the door wider to let him inside.

Itachi stared at the pile of boxes in the entrance and raised an eyebrow. Then his gaze moved to the rest of the apartment and he found several more boxes scattered around and a general lack of furniture in general.

"I just moved in this morning. I would offer you something to drink but my glasses and cups are in one of the boxes," admitted Sakura with a tired sigh. As she spoke, she pulled the tie out of her hair to let it fall down around her shoulders. The motion sent a wave of air into Itachi's face. She smelled faintly of perfume and that threw Itachi off. In fact, Sakura was dressed much differently from what he was used to. In nothing but a sleeveless white top and stretchy black shorts that hugged her figure, it was hard to piece her together with the girl he had seen running around with his little brother from childhood.

Sakura snapped her hair tie onto her wrist and looked up at him, waiting for him to speak. When she put her hands on her hips, he could see the way the muscles in her arms flexed. It took Itachi a moment to remember what he was going to say.

"I just returned from a mission and I think I strained my shoulders. Tsunade-sama told me to come to you," explained Itachi. Sakura blew out a long sigh.

"Alright. Normally I would kick you out since it's my day off and I'm unpacking. But since you're Sasuke-kun's brother I'll do you a favor," Sakura said with reluctance. She turned on her heel, walking into the apartment. As she slipped into the kitchen, she pointed toward the lone sofa sitting in the living room.

"Take your shirt off. Lie face down," she ordered.

"Pardon?" Itachi called back.

There were a serious of beeps and then Itachi heard the microwave buzz.

After a moment, Sakura's head poked in through the doorway to look at him.

"Shirt off. Lie down on the sofa. I can't massage you if your shirt's in the way," she replied with a hint of impatience before she went back into the kitchen.

Itachi hesitated for a moment before he pulled his black shirt off in one smooth motion and then folded it neatly. He placed it on the arm of the sofa and then lay down as instructed. He was just occupying himself counting the floorboards in the living room when Sakura walked in. He heard her flapping what sounded like a towel before he felt the hot fabric descend on his upper back and shoulders. He barely suppressed a sigh of relief as Sakura began kneading his shoulders through the warmed towel.

"Wow. You've got yourself a lot of knots up here," remarked Sakura. In his relaxed daze, Itachi registered her words a full five seconds later.

"It was a difficult mission," Itachi admitted. Though the details of the mission were classified and Sakura undoubtedly knew that, it seemed impolite not to answer to her. Sakura didn't seem to mind the silence, however. After a minute, she tossed the towel aside and then Itachi felt the hum of chakra focusing.

"Excuse me," Sakura said. And before Itachi could look, she was climbing up on the sofa too and straddling his back.

"Sorry. Better leverage this way. This might hurt at first," she went on in an easy voice before her fingers grasped his shoulders and firmly grasped and kneaded the muscles there. It was a little painful how rigorously she rubbed her fingers into all the places that hurt. But then the cool ripples of her chakra followed afterwards, soothing the initial pain and relaxing the muscles as they traced the paths of her hands.

It took maybe less than two minutes for Itachi to relax completely under her hands.

Sakura tried not to laugh. Sasuke had always described her brother as the ultimate weapon. He hardly seemed threatening like this- a pile of contented goo on the sofa.

But as Sakura reached up to massage the sides of Itachi's neck, she felt a prick of pain on her own shoulder blade.

To her horror, the strap of her bra disconnected from the back with a stinging snap. Sakura scrambled to grab the strap. The rest of her bra was in place, but it was still embarrassing when Itachi's head twisted around.

"Are you alright?" he asked when he heard the peculiar noise of brittle plastic cracking. Face growing hot, Sakura climbed off his back.

"Uh… my bra strap might have just broken off," admitted Sakura. Itachi blinked slowly before rising on his elbows.

"Well…" he simply said, clearly at a loss for words.

"Then I suppose I will wait here. Please, feel free to go change," Itachi said, gesturing toward the bedroom as he politely turned to face the other way. But when Sakura didn't move, he looked over at her.

"Today's laundry day," stated Sakura. Her free hand clenched at her side. She could feel her ears and neck grow hot too as Itachi stared at her.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," he admitted after a moment of thought.

Sakura took a deep breath as she tried not to burst in flames from the sheer embarrassment.

"Today is laundry day. So all of my other clothes are in the washing machine or in the dryer. And this is my only bra right now," she slowly explained. Itachi's eyes widened.

"Oh," he said.

There was another awkward pause before Itachi cleared his throat.

"Well… I can sew a little. I could attempt to fix your strap… if you'd like," he offered in halting words.

"I don't have anything to wear under my shirt then," admitted Sakura, wishing she could sink into the floor and die. This conversation was painfully embarrassing. Itachi looked around the apartment.

"Is there perhaps anything you could wear over your clothes, then? Like a jacket?" he suggested.

"All of my other clothes are still at my parents' house. I was going to go pick them up tomorrow," groaned Sakura, now the color of an overripe tomato. But then, an idea struck her in her desperation.

"Hold on!" she exclaimed before bolting into her room.

Itachi sat on the sofa, hands in his lap, listening to the shuffles and bangs from Sakura's bedroom. He could hear her cursing and kicking boxes aside as she rummaged frantically for something. Itachi tried his best not to smile but her reactions were too funny not to find even just a little bit funny. Several minutes later, he heard her let out a triumphant shout. When the door creaked open, Sakura emerged draped in a blue bed sheet that she had managed to dig out from her piles of boxes. It dragged along on the floor behind her.

Refusing to look Itachi in the eyes, she stalked over and dropped something white into his outstretched palm. Erupting a fresh shade of scarlet, Sakura marched back into her room and retrieved a small wooden box, which she thrust into Itachi's hands. Sakura then plopped down on the farthest end of the sofa and refused to look at him.

Itachi opened the box to find a small sewing kit inside. He raised an eyebrow.

"This is a good set of equipment. Are you sure you don't sew?" he queried.

"My mom tried to teach me when I was younger. And she tried to bribe me with that for one of my birthday presents but that didn't work out so well," replied Sakura sheepishly before she remembered to be mortified again. Huddling up in the blanket, she peered out at Itachi from between the folds in the fabric.

"Hm," he simply hummed in response as he threaded the needle in one neat try and then examined the bra more carefully. Sakura half-covered her face and half-peeked out between her fingers. It was bad enough that a man was touching her bra. The situation was made a thousand times worse that it had to be Sasuke's hot brother.

Still, as time went on, Sakura found herself relaxing a little. Itachi seemed solely focused on figuring out the best way to match up the edge of the strap to its proper place. He didn't peek her way or throw out any sleazy comments.

Sakura rested her cheek against her shoulder as she watched him work.

"Itachi-san, how are you so good at that?" she questioned after a minute of silence. Itachi glanced up at her through his long eyelashes.

"I've always been good with my hands. Hand-eye coordination has never been a problem for me, I suppose," he answered in a pleasant sort of voice. It sounded almost like Sasuke's voice only slightly deeper with a warmer hint to it. Sakura closed her eyes and took it in. In all the chaos of packing and moving out of her parents' house in the last couple days, she hadn't had time to relax.

"If you don't mind me asking, why did you move from your parents' place?" questioned Itachi. Sakura's eyebrows rose but her eyes remained shut. Instead, she gave him a smile as she thought.

"Hmm… I felt like if I stayed under my parents' roof forever, I would never learn to grow up, I guess. I mean, I'm 19 but I still feel like a little kid," she admitted.

Itachi laughed softly.

"What does that say about someone like me? I'm older than you and I still live at home," he quipped in response. Realizing that he was teasing her, Sakura opened her eyes to gape at him. She felt a response rise in her throat.

And then, there was a knock on the door. And Sakura froze completely for a moment. Her gaze locked with Itachi's and she saw something glinting there that she didn't understand.

"Oh my god, why are you still not wearing a shirt?" she finally whispered. Itachi glanced down at his torso.

"I'm sorry, but I've been a little busy fixing your bra," he said, pointing to the article of clothing held in his left hand.

"Ugh, don't look at it! Just- just- hide or something!" she hissed, flapping her hands at him from under the sheet. Itachi sighed.

"I can't fix it if I don't look at it. And it's Sasuke. He's felt my chakra by now so there's no point in trying to hide," responded Itachi with a laugh somewhere between exasperation and amusement. But Sakura jumped off the sofa, to bully him into the kitchen where he would remain invisible from the door. Standing by the refrigerator, shirtless, and still holding onto Sakura's bra in one hand. The needle and thread were still attached to the bra.

"Just," she gasped, pausing mid-step to glare at him, "stay there." Itachi chuckled softly as Sakura nearly tripped over the sheet as she ran to the door.

Outside the apartment, Sasuke pounded harder on the door until it finally flew open. And a very flustered Sakura stood in the doorway, a bed sheet wrapped around her body so haphazardly that there were odd lumps in the fabric. Pulling her tangled bangs out of her eyes, Sakura pretended not to be out of breath. Leaning there, she offered him an awkward smile.

"Uh. Hey, Sasuke-kun," she greeted him with a valiant attempt at nonchalance.

"Sakura, it's 3 in the afternoon," stated Sasuke. Sakura twisted around to glance at the clock on the wall before she looked back to her teammate.

"Yes, it is," replied Sakura.

"And you're still in bed? And why the hell are you wearing that thing? And why the hell do I feel my brother's chakra?" continued Sasuke with a scrutinizing stare. Sakura's gaze suddenly grew shifty as Sasuke continued to look over her odd state of dress and the way her hair was an untamable nest around her head.

"That, little brother, would be because Sakura-chan is considerate enough not to flash a visitor," another voice answered for Sakura when she struggled to find words and drew a blank. She could practically feel part of her soul leaving her body.

Sasuke's face went slack for a long moment before it suddenly contorted with disgust.

"Sakura! Gross!" he exclaimed. Sakura shook her head frantically even as she wrapped the sheet tighter around her body.

"Wait, Sasuke-kun, you're misunderstanding!" she insisted. But Sasuke was already fleeing, his head down and his hands in his pockets as he strode off. At the end of the hall, she saw him shudder and rake his fingers through his hair before storming off. Sakura stood staring after him, grinding her teeth together. She glanced over her shoulder and found Itachi leaning against the doorframe. His chest was directly behind her and she could almost feel the heat from his body.

"You did that on purpose," accused Sakura with a glower.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean," Itachi replied with a perfect expression of pure innocence.

He held out his pointer finger to her. On it dangled her bra, the strap neatly mended with matching white thread. Face exploding with a new blush, Sakura snatched the bra up and shoved it into the depths of the sheet, hiding it from sight.

"Your laundry is done, by the way. I can start folding your underwear for you if you need help," remarked Itachi, jabbing his thumb toward the kitchen with a teasing smirk.

Sakura promptly shoved him out of the apartment and slammed the door in his face. She leaned against the door, letting out a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.

"My shirt, Sakur-"

Sakura opened the door, threw the shirt at him, and shut it again.

And leaning there, chest heaving, she heard Itachi's muffled laugh.


	6. Dysfunctional

6. Dysfunctional

(for Girlalicious)

* * *

"Let's have an affair," Itachi said.

Her pen, which had been so diligently tapping across the clipboard, paused momentarily. And then it resumed its merry dance along the lines, inking in words in curving letters. The final dot of the period at the end of the sentence had an odd finality to it as she paused.

She moved on to the next section.

He leaned back in his chair, fingers drumming idly against the armrest as he watched her.

"Take these antibiotics for the next fourteen days. Give me a call if your symptoms don't clear up in three days," she ordered as she ripped the top page off her prescription pad and slid it over to him. Then she jotted something else down on her clipboard before she unclipped the sheet and slipped it into a manila folder with his name on the tab.

"Is it because you know I have a wife? Some sense of obligation to her?" he questioned in the same bored tone as usual. But she could see the madness sparkling in his eyes. She had known him for long enough to know when he was teasing her.

"I feel no such thing. You know that. Avoid alcohol. And smoking. I've been telling you to quit smoking for the past two years," she continued on with a stern look. He cupped his chin in his hand with a smug smile.

"You remember how long? It's not like you to remember anniversaries," he responded with a touch of humor to his voice. Her eyes narrowed.

"It's on your file. Now leave. I have another appointment," sighed the doctor in return. She shook her wrist once to straighten her watch so that she could look at the time. Pulling her hand through her hair, she let out a long breath and then shut the folder on her desk.

"Then is it because you're busy? I'll work around your schedule, Doc," he went on as if she weren't kicking him out. And as he crossed one leg over the other, he gave her a clear message that he wasn't going to get moving anytime soon.

"We go through this every time you're here. I am not going to sleep with you. It's time for you to go," she stated with steel in her voice. Undaunted, he curled his lips in a faint smile.

"Then go on one date with me. One. And I will never ask you again," offered the man in return. She folded her arms tightly over her chest. Lips pursing, she glowered at him for a long time as she thought.

"One date. And you won't harass me anymore?" she demanded.

"Yes."

"Just a date? Nothing else," she confirmed.

"Of course."

After a long silence, she shrugged.

"Fine. Friday night at 7," she said.

"Saturday morning at 10," he counter-offered.

Her eyebrows rose.

"Just one," he reminded her.

"Fine," she scoffed.

"Now get out, Mr. Uchiha," she then ordered while pointing to the door. Getting to his feet, Itachi picked up the prescription from the physician and tucked it into the pocket of his shirt.

"See you at the train station, _Doctor Haruno_," responded Itachi before he left the room, a smile touching at his lips.

When the irate doctor burst into her apartment later that day, Ino looked up from painting her toenails. Blowing on the fresh coat of sky blue she had just finished applying, Ino watched Sakura throw her car keys into the bowl by the door and then carelessly kick off her heels. Today had been one of Ino's rare days off and the smell of acetone and mango body scrub filled the place.

"Rough day? I thought you said it's been quiet lately," Ino commented as Sakura stomped into the kitchen.

"That _moron_ was there again!" shouted Sakura. The fridge opened. Bottles clinked together and plastic bags rustled. When Sakura came back into the living room, it was with an open beer and a stick of string cheese.

"Again? What do you mean? Was he faking being sick?" queried Ino. Sakura sat on the floor in front of her and began peeling the clear plastic off the outside of the cheese. She broke off a hunk and offered it to Ino who opened her mouth wide. Sakura tossed it in before she took a bite herself.

"Well…no. He had the beginnings of strep. So I gave him some antibiotics," Sakura reluctantly explained. Ino rolled her eyes.

"How is that even possible? Didn't he just come in like three weeks ago?" Ino grumbled.

"For a check-up," confirmed Sakura.

"And then the week before he just _happened _to be in the area when he noticed an old woman struggling on the street and brought her in to see you," Ino reminded her. It was Sakura's turn to roll her eyes.

"Anyway, I have a date with him on Saturday," Sakura went on. Ino's eyes went wide. She momentarily forgot to blow on her toenails.

"Excuse me?" Ino whispered while Sakura continued to munch on her cheese.

"Yeah. So help me pick my outfit," Sakura continued in the same blasé manner. She left the room, stuffing the last of her snack into her mouth. Tossing the last of her beer back, Sakura waited to hear Ino scrambling to her feet before she headed down the hall towards her room.

Saturday came and Sakura woke feeling vaguely like she had been hit by a truck.

She cracked her eyes open to find Ino curled up at the foot of her bed. Kicking Ino's arms off her, Sakura rolled out of the covers to land in an ungraceful heap on the floor. She groaned and grumbled her way to the bathroom. On the way, she caught a glimpse of Shikamaru passed out in Ino's bed while Chouji slept on the floor.

Sakura tasted the sour shadow of wine on the back of her tongue. She grimaced. She brushed her teeth. But when the unpleasant flavor persisted, she rinsed her mouth out with mouthwash. And then she realized that her hair was greasy and tangled and decided standing under the hot spray in the shower for a while might be a good idea.

After her long shower, Sakura decided that she felt maybe 20% closer to being human. She slapped moisturizer and make-up on her face in the hopes of hiding her dark circles. Gulping down glasses of water and spoonfuls of leftover chicken soup straight from the pot, Sakura pulled on the outfit Ino had set aside in the closet for her days ago.

The keys jangled when she grabbed them off the kitchen counter.

Sakura plopped down in the seat at the café half an hour later. Sunglasses on and mouth set in a grim line, she was the perfect image of a hangover. When the smiling waiter stopped by, she blearily ordered a cappuccino. The look he gave her was one of pure sympathy. Then she was left to sit in the cool morning. The sun was rising higher in the sky but the umbrella on top of the table did a good job of blocking out most of its piercing rays. Sakura hooked her finger into her scarf and pulled it higher.

She felt like a bitchy vampire.

"You're early," noted Itachi as he suddenly appeared and seated himself across from her. He was the image of perfection in his tan coat and a red scarf draped under the collar.

"Ugh, please don't speak," Sakura sighed in return. Her fingers pressed into her pounding temples.

The waiter returned like a shining savior of caffeine. He set the hot drink in front of Sakura and took Itachi's order before slipping away again. All the while, Itachi sat staring at her, analyzing her as if she were a painting in a museum.

"Can I help you?" she growled as she stirred the coffee. Though her headache was strong enough to be called a migraine, Sakura was also unwilling to scald herself.

"Rough night? Cocktails with the girls?" he guessed.

"Wine with the physical therapy department," she shot back.

He didn't seem to have a response for that. Rather, Itachi seemed perfectly content not to have a response. He waited for his coffee to arrive and then he watched her over the rim as he drank. A contented sort of hum rose in his throat and Sakura gulped down some of her cooling cappuccino before fixing him with a puzzled glare.

"What would you like to do today?" he asked in a blasé sort of way.

"You asked me out on the date. Your plans. Not mine," she slowly said.

"Yes, but I was simply asking if you had anything you would prefer to do before I reveal my plans," he answered, passive smile never faltering.

"Well, I would _prefer_ not to be here," snapped Sakura in response.

"Your second preference, then," Itachi went on, undaunted.

"For me to be here but you to not be," she easily retorted.

He let out a quiet sigh, as if he were dealing with a particularly stubborn child. The conversation petered out there. They finished their drinks and Sakura coldly put down the bills for her drink before Itachi could even reach for this wallet.

"Well, a coffee date counts as a date. Have a nice weekend," Sakura announced as she got to her feet. Itachi watched her walk off with her hips swaying. Staring down at the dregs left at the bottom of his mug, he half-smiled at his predicament. He had forgotten to take the medicine she had prescribed in the morning.

* * *

"And so she walked off after just coffee?" Sasuke asked with his cheek in his hand. He grabbed another rice ball off the plate and gobbled it down. Itachi watched his younger brother devour their lunch and gave a tired nod.

"Well, it's kind of to be expected. You took off for a six-month business trip right after your honeymoon and you barely called her. Sakura made me help her move her stuff into Ino's apartment after the first two months. She said being alone in an empty house at night was the worst," Sasuke went on without much sympathy. After all, in his brother's absence, Sasuke had been the target of Sakura's misdirected fury.

"I would like it if she didn't pretend that we weren't strangers, at the very least. I've been home for two months now and she still refuses to talk to me, much less move back in," grumbled Itachi.

"Well yeah, I guess that seems a little harsh. But what's all this about asking her to have an affair with you?" Sasuke pried. His sister-in-law had called him the night before to complain about the date and about how Itachi probably didn't care if he was so apathetic about everything. On top of that, his strange suggestion had launched her into a solid hour-long rant that had made Sasuke feel repentant by the end of it.

Such was the power of Sakura's anger.

Sasuke desperately wished that he could leave for a 6-month trip too while these two idiots worked things out.

"I don't know. Roleplaying? Isn't that supposed to spice up a failing relationship?" Itachi responded.

Sasuke's jaw dropped. He didn't know what kind of explanation he had expected. But certainly not that one. He stared at his older brother for a solid minute before he, shaking his head, reached for another rice ball and took a huge bite.

"I can't figure out how a complete blockhead like you managed to get Sakura to marry you. Anyway, Sakura can hold a grudge for a _pretty_ long time so try your best, big bro."

Itachi stuffed his cheeks full of rice ball and didn't say anything else.


End file.
